As a society, we like to think we’ve come a long way in the treatment of serious and chronic mental disorders over the last couple of decades. But much of the social stigma associated with being labeled as “mentally ill” remains, and advocates who want patients to have a stronger…
When he was a boy, acclaimed naturalist Robert Michael Pyle found what he describes as an “imaginary wilderness” not far from his back door in Aurora — a muddy, weedy, man-made ditch where all sorts of interesting flora and fauna had managed to survive the relentless march of suburbia. The High…
Moving from a small town in Oklahoma to oh-so-sophisticated Colorado, Austin Eubanks found it difficult to fit in. But toward the end of his freshman year at Columbine High School he came across Corey DePooter — a guy who, like Eubanks, appreciated the simple joys of golf, fly fishing and…
Just what did Colorado taxpayers get out of the Justice Review Project, a four-year program that required state prosecutors to review more than 5,000 criminal cases, in search of possible wrongful convictions? The result was one exoneration through DNA testing — the only case in which DNA was tested at…
The April 6 announcement that city planners had settled on Denver’s City Park Golf Course as the logical place to build a thirty-acre “detention area” for stormwater runoff — a move that will involve closing the course for more than a year and bulldozing hundreds of trees — wasn’t exactly…
Community groups in north Denver have joined forces with the Sierra Club to file a federal lawsuit against the EPA, claiming that the agency lowered its pollution standards in order to push forward the controversial expansion of I-70 through the Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods. The $1.8 billion project, which would…
As we reported last week, the United States government recently agreed to pay $175,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Robert Knott, a severely mentally ill inmate who committed suicide in 2013 while in solitary confinement at the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum (ADX), the federal supermax in Florence…
On an unseasonably warm winter afternoon, Tom Rutter sits on the patio at Bogey’s on the Park, the clubhouse restaurant at Denver’s City Park Golf Course. The regulars are out on the yellowed fairways or tipping back beers inside, but Rutter is elbow-deep in maps, notes, planning documents and iced…
The United States government is paying $175,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a severely mentally ill inmate who committed suicide in 2013 while in solitary confinement at the federal supermax in Florence. Although the settlement contains no admission of fault, one of the attorneys in the…
A complex legal battle over who gets to raise a six-year-old girl with a seven-figure inheritance is headed for the Colorado Court of Appeals amid allegations that a Denver Probate Court judge exhibited “discrimination, bigotry and prejudice” in removing the girl from the custody of the only mother she’s known…
This week’s cover story, “Idea Man,” deals with University of Colorado Denver undergrad Caleb Carr’s quest to help other student inventors control the rights to scientific discoveries and other intellectual property they may develop while still in school. Carr believes that university policies that assign most (and sometimes all) of…
At first the problem seemed like a mechanical issue. A piece of machinery failed to operate properly. A rescue mission had to be aborted. Someone died. Caleb Carr was there when it happened, a wide-eyed, fifteen-year-old member of the Explorers, a volunteer group in Oregon that assisted the Multnomah County…
When major television folks descend on the fly-over states to rehash some notorious tragedy, they’re generally better at playing the heartstrings than pushing for answers. That was certainly the case when Barbara Walters sat down with John Ramsey a few months ago, to bat around a few whiffle-ball questions about the 1996…
The ACLU of Colorado has filed a lawsuit against Adams State University on behalf of a former professor who started a website critical of hiring practices and was then banned from campus — and subsequently accused of posing a public safety risk by the university’s president. As we first reported last…
The only remaining plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging a high-rise development across the street from Sloan’s Lake have withdrawn from the case — a move that a frustrated neighborhood group claims is the result of “improper influence” on the part of the developer, which allegedly offered to buy the plaintiffs’…
The Colorado Department of Agriculture refers to them as “destructive rodent pests.” The state’s wildlife conservation strategy describes them as a “species of greatest conservation need.” Ranchers and developers want to nuke them. Environmentalists say they’re a key component in a rapidly vanishing ecosystem. Colorado’s deeply ambivalent, love-hate relationship with…
Thousands of prisoners across the country who were sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes committed when they were juveniles could soon have their sentences significantly reduced, thanks to a United States Supreme Court ruling on Monday. That group includes more than forty juvie lifers in Colorado, most of whom have…
The good news is that the Denver Broncos are heading to the Super Bowl for the eighth time. The bad news is the blizzard of blather that we can expect right up until kickoff. Once again, our city is drowning in a tidal wave of Orange Gush. Every time the…
Environmental groups claim that U.S. Forest Service officials felt politically pressured to aid a Texas billionaire’s plans for a massive resort development on Wolf Creek Pass and made various attempts to conceal or destroy records in order to avoid public scrutiny of the decision process — including one e-mail from…
People who have met the girl describe her as talkative and playful. She’s bright, outgoing, a bundle of energy and curiosity, always on the move. She just celebrated her sixth birthday a few weeks ago, but she’s already traveled to more places, in Europe and across America, than many girls…
A just-released report on the 2013 Arapahoe High School shooting faults the school administration for failing to share information about troubled teen Karl Pierson, performing an inadequate threat assessment after Pierson declared that he wanted to kill a teacher, and ignoring other serious red flags in the months leading up…
In a part-timer economy, fast-food workers and janitors aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch. Skimpy wages, long hours and a lack of benefits can also be found in the white-collar sweat shops operated by the Colorado Community College System. Last night, a group of CCCS instructors gathered at the…
