25 people face felony charges for running a drug ring that spanned from mexico to colorado. the bust netted 47-pounds of heroin, 11 weapons and $30,000 of cocaine. the dea said it supplied hundreds, if not thousands of users. heroin deaths jumped from went 1 in 2003 to 137 last year. among those who died in 20 was a 16-year-old boy. 9wants to know investigator whitney wild spoke with his parents. >> reporter: trisha gross says she can't watch these videos very often anymore. >> they're great memories, but there won't be any more. >> reporter: she's been coping with the debt of her 16-year- old son -- death of her 16-year- old son brendan in september, 2015 when he died of a heroin overdose in his bedroom. >> the first four months i barely left the house. i wore brendan's clothes every single day. i was barely functioning.

knew he was struggling. >> he was an amazing athlete. he played varsity hockey as a freshman. i felt total shame, total guilt. i went back to when he was little and, you know, maybe i let him cry too long in his crib. what was it that caused him to turn to this? >> reporter: brendan's death is one example of the heroin problem reaching into seemingly every community in colorado. this has been a 12 today the head of the dea in denver announced a major heroin bust and said the numbers are astounding. >> in the last five years the number of heroin overdoses has increased almost 350% and we're not talking nation wide. we're talking here in colorado. >> this epidemic with heroin is not discriminating against anyone. >> reporter: gross is finding a way to heal by launching a program called beauty from his ashes. she and her husband meet with families to help them navigate

>> had we have had someone that had been in our shoes, it would have been so much easier for us. so that's what we want to offer to other parents and families. >> reporter: in her pain she's sharing a message. no parent dealing with heroin addiction is truly alone. in conifer whitney wild, 9news. >> we have a ling to beauty from his ashes -- a link to beauty from his ashes on our website 9news.com. according to the cdc, heroin use across between 2002 and 2013 the rate of heroin related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled. 8,200 people died in 2013 from overdoses. just yesterday in one virginia community there were 26 overdoses in four hours to compare in huntingdon where this happened there were 39 overdoses the entire month of august last year. police say they almost ran out of responders to make it to all the calls. five overdoses happened at 1

drugs came from. there are changes planned for the railroad crossing in trinidad where a family of five was killed. the state approved work to install warning signals including flashing lights, bell and gates at the crossing. the plan was approved last week. burlington northern santa fe railroad will upgrade the crossing at a cost of more than $270,000. the work will take three to six months. in june a california bound amtrak train hit and ll five members of the miller family. a 4-year-old survived and is now living with her aunt and uncle. the crossing was only marked with warning signs. one of the country's largest american indian tribes is suing the federal government over the gold king mine spill which happened a year ago this month which contaminated rivers in three states including colorado. attorneys for the navajo nation filed a lawsuit today against the epa. the state of new mexico is suing colorado over the spill.

more than $29 million on spill related costs. 11 people have now died after historic flooding in louisiana, the governor announcing at least 40,000 homes are damaged or destroyed by waters continuing to rise as rivers push south. clear skies today allowed some people to go home and see the damage for the first time. >> i was not prepared. we had no idea that this was going to happen. it's things of my daughters, we'll never get things like that back. >> despite taking days to destroy, the governor said it will take months to clean up. about 2 feet of rain has fallen on the state since last friday. demonstrators in north dakota are slowing work on the dakota access pipeline. protesters gathered south of

pipeline will affect water quality on the standing rock sioux native american reservation. 10 people were arrested yesterday. developers are expected to go to federal court for an in junk to stop the protesters. ken salazar, former u.s. senator from colorado and former u.s. interior secretary could have a new job. he's been asked to be chairman of hillary clinton's presidential transition team if she wins the election. both trump and clinton have people lined up to help plan their transition into the white house. salazar's equivalent forth governor chris christie. colorado republican senator cory gardner says voters should support donald trump. gardner withheld his endorsement and got into a twitter war of words after trump criticized colorado's gop nominating process in april. gardner says now it's important to election the entire republican ticket. we often talk about denver's homelessness problem, but many surrounding cities are

populations continue to grow and the cost of living continues to skyrocket. >> i love colorado. it's beautiful, but it's just too expensive. >> reporter: we've heard that before and rents only continue to rise. >> your rent will be $1,200 for a two bedroom. >> reporter: so much so dana calloway who has been homeless in aurora since march. >> you are stuck sleeping in the park or trying to find -- hopefully you ha piece of carpet of that's all you can do. >> reporter: all you can do she says with the limited number of resources for the homeless here, but the city has a plan to do more. >> no more homelessness in aurora. >> reporter: that's a pretty big vision. is it possible? >> it is, but it's possible. >> reporter: it's only shelly mckitrick's second day on the job, though she's done this kind of work for 20 years. as aurora's first homeless program director, she's already thinking big for the future.

emergency quick response to get those people housed again. >> reporter: rapid rehousing, a national best practice she'll look to build upon in the coming years. the city allocated $4.5 million for programs and services over the next three years and it will all come from the marijuana tax, a welcome dollar sign for a woman who has been there and done that. >> every dollar that's allocated hud to homelessness is competed over intensely. >> reporter: it's money that calloway get into housing and receive services at the same time. >> i have a bachelors degree, but i'm homeless. so it's not like i'm uneducated. i don't do drugs, but i just can't afford to live out here. >> cost of living plaguing so many people now. shelly comes to aurora from santa cruz, california, where she worked many years and faced some of the same issues. she will take her experiences there, look at what's working

some of those best practices in aurora. >> i think there's a misperception about all homeless people and in you go, someone with a bachelors degree who never expected to be on the street. >> that cost of living can really affect whether or not you are in a stable living condition. she even gets work every now and then but not being able to have a place to live really affect her day to day. >> tough situation. thank you. those cloud might bring a few storms tonight. later this week more rain and cooler temperatures the hall marks. we'll check in olympic image and a work of art. it's a close up look at the olympic cauldron. >> in sports pat bowlen was snubbed by the pro football hall of fame and mike klis has

if you watched olympic coverage the past few days, you've seen the shots of the olympic cauldron. the flame ranks up there with the olympic rings. in rio it's drawing crowds despite the fact it's nowhere near the competition venues. >> cheryl preheim and ma the cauldron design is pretty unique. >> reporter: it is. it's a piece of moving art and it's not tucked away in a stadium somewhere where only people with tickets to an event have access to see it. >> reporter: this time it's in a place where everyone can see one of the most unique calderons ever built. in the heart of rio thousands of tourists -- >> i had to come and see for myself. >> reporter: like sabrina adams are basking in the bright

olympic cauldrons ever. >> i think it's so different and unique and so pretty. >> reporter: 4 feet in diameter weighing 4,000-pound and powered by the wind, it twists, turns and spins keeping people watching for hour. >> it's mesmerizing. >> reporter: the work of washington state sculptor anthony howe. >> this is one of the more first shown during opening ceremony. >> i started sobbing. it was monumental to have 80,000 people screaming and clapping. it was unbelievable. >> reporter: now it and the olympic flame are in downtown rio giving sabrina -- >> just beautiful to watch. you can watch a long time and not get bore like watching the flame. -- bored like watching the flame. >> reporter: and others a spellbinding olympic moment. >> being here is magical and

artist a year to make that cauldron. >> reporter: that is amazing. in the 5,000-meter run today there was one of though moments that really shows those hopes that really shows sometimes -- of those moments that really shows sometimes sportsmanship has nothing to do with the sport itself. there was a collision during the race between two runners 1/3 of the way through. no one was sure disappointment hurt the most. >> reporter: then something beautiful happened. the new zealand runner felt a hand on her shoulder. the american runner stopped to help her back up, but her knee was badly hurt, so even as she helped her, that american nearly fell. hamlin returned the favor and they walked across the finish line together. >> reporter: pretty amazing that the clock wasn't impressive the way the race turned out, but everybody in the stand said it was the best one of the day and no question,

is all about. >> it embodies that, doesn't it? >> an emotional hug afterwards as well. thank you, guys. kathy is tracking some weak storms tonight. >> later in the week there will be more rain and cooler

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it was a beautiful day. you cannot say it was not. >> i'm sad. i was stuck inside. >> kathy, he's got the rest of the evening. what is the evening shaping up to be? >> he does. we're tracking a couple strong cells south and east of the city, but downtown it's beautiful, not too warm. there's a light breeze and we have the partly cloudy skies. take a look. here's what you've been missing, jonathan sitting inside all day, but you've got a couple hours between now and 7:00, temperatures very comfortable with a thunderstorms. in boulder we've been tracking the high cloud cover coming off the front range foothills, but really just a nice day out west as well. 88 degrees initially, but we just spiked to 91 in denver for a new high, 94 in lamar, 90 in grand junction above average a couple degrees, nowhere near the record thankfully. at the airport this hour, humidity about 22%, winds increasing, something we're finding in the backyard outside

tracking rolling off the foothills today from the east not producing a lot of rain, something we could use in this monsoon moisture month running well below average for precipitation. the storms we're tracking are quite strong and one or two are dropping decent rain on the far eastern west of limon and byers, an aerial flood advisory in effect over rural areas. the storm is sitting and producing heavy rain over a small area. severe thunderstorm warnings initially ou springs and callahan, now flash flood warnings. these storms are not moving a whole lot. heavy rain will be a big threat mainly south and east of denver tonight along with a lot of thunder and lightning. big story continues in the gulf coast region. texas, louisiana, mississippi, 20 to 40 inches of rain. in the last 24 hours we've had reports of 4 to 6-inch of rain across this very same area. really when you look at some of the headlines from this

scenario, 40,000 homes impacted, 30,000 people rescued, 11 people died. the federal government declares this a major disaster area with again 1 to 3 feet of rain, something that we'll see continue for much of the gulf coast region tomorrow while we see a little moisture running to colorado as high pressure buckles and shifts a bit. there's a front north of us that will be here friday ushering in a cooler air misand good chance of showers heading tomorrow -- air mass and a good chance of shower heading into the weekend. tomorrow the storms will be capable of producing heavy rain, thunder and lightning. outflow boundaries are mainly west and south of denver going late into the night. skies will clear. we are mostly sunny tomorrow, good travel weather, i25 and i- 70. foothill thunderstorms hole off till late in the day and one or -- hold off till late in the day and one or two storms in

50s on the plains tonight. toasty in the south and 91 in the grand junction area. headed to evergreen, 80 in and 73 in grand lake. in the denver metro area tonight isolated storms still possible and then skies clear. our low 58. sunrise tomorrow 6:12. we do it again tomorrow, 82 by lunchtime, 89 by 3:00 in the afternoon. a scenario that will play out thursday ahead of the friday cool front which will be temperatures down to for the weekend. good chance of rain, 30 to 40% chance of showers friday into saturday. some drying on sunday, but a cool fall like weekend coming up before temperatures spike again heading into the first part of next week. remember storm reports, weather pictures always welcome. adele, jonathan, do you love the summer sunflowers out near dia? cindy with the great shot tonight. >> wow, looks like a orange pie

>> i know. some of us are ready for a little moisture. >> we do need it. it's getting dry. >> we won't hold it against you, kathy. coming up next the broncos are getting ready to change things up at training camp. >> what broncos insider mike klis thinks of the decision by the pro football hall of

energy companies rose with the price of oil, but stocks have been locked in an up and down

from colorado's sports leader here's aaron matas. >> the second last practice in the books today and things ?? switch up wednesday to officially close camp. tomorrow will be the first of two joint practices with the san francisco 49ers. it should be a good change of pace for both teams. >> i'm in everybody does. you go against each other all the time. you know each other and each other's tendencies. so you kind of get -- i don't want to say bored, but it's nice to see something different, see a different defense, different coverages. officially we'll see obviously speed type tempo and those things. it's just really good for our players. >> not all of the news was on the field. the pro football hall of fame snubbed broncos owner pat

insider mike klis called the decision outrageous. how bad did they screw this up, mike? >> reporter: well, just about on every level. first of all, jerry jones is still active. so he's got all kinds of time where he can still mess things up and i would bet on that happening. pat bowlen's body of work is finished. now for the body of work pat bowlen as owner of the broncos only five losing seasons since he bought the team in 1984. that is the fewest jerry jones bought it five years later in 89. he's had nine losing seasons. more conference championship appearances for the broncos 5-0 impaired to jerry jones in the last 20 years. then in the league jerry jones helped bring in the nfl network, but pat bowlen grew the game from 19 91 when art modell said that the league was losing money on its tv deal to

pat bowlen should be in the hall of fame ahead of jerry jones. >> all right. real quick we're still waiting on something, anything on who might win this quarterback competition for the broncos. >> reporter: yeah. right now i would say bet a nickel on trevor simeon to start against the 49ers, but take another nickel and put it on mark sanchez against the carolina panthers, but i really don't think gary kubiak has made up his mind yet. he hasn't told >> all right. we continue to wait. thank you so much. a couple joint practices with the 49er and then the two teams go head to head saturday preseason game no. 2. it can be seen on channel 20 at 6:00 way special addition of broncos tonight. colorado native jeanine becky still has a shot of an olympic medal. it won't be gold or silver.

in the semifinals. the valor christian graduate had a great chance to tie the game at 1-1 late in the 2nd half, but her shot sailed wide. engineer any won 2-0 and will face sweden. canada will take on brazil for the bronze. university of colorado graduate jenni simpson runs in the 1,500-meter final in rio looking for her first olympic medal. emma coburn became the first american woman ever to medal she's still soaking it all up in rio but can't wait to get home to crested butte. >> too come home to this small town where everyone is so close with an olympic medal is just going to mean so much to me. i hope that i represented my hometown well. they've done nothing but support me, so i'm really proud to be from there. >> russian diver ealyian

competition. he was a 2012 gold medalist and got a zero for this disaster of a dive. it's his face that makes contact with the water first. he did not qualify for the finals, as you might imagine. >> what happened? >> i'd get into it. we're running out of time. >> he's been watching me too much. that's what it looks like when i do it. >> a big oops happened, kathy.

tonight, racing to escape. a frantic turn in the worst flood disaster since superstorm sandy. now 30,000 rescued as more communities scramble to get out of the way. >> arson arrest. a man is charged with setting anxp that burned over 100 homes and buildings to the ground. and trump and ailes? a bombshell report that the fox news chief is now helping the gop nominee. plus what we have learneboump' first classified intelligence briefing. inside the fbi interview, what hillary clinton told the feds and why they recommended against charging her. and crossing the