Denver has significant ties to Standing Rock and the resistance movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Many people, including members of indigenous groups in Denver like the American Indian Movement of Colorado (AIM) and delegations from non-native groups like Black Lives Matter 5280, traveled the hundreds of miles from Colorado to the…
Emboldened under the Trump administration, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have recently encroached into what Denver officials are calling “sensitive locations,” driving fear in the city’s immigrant communities. That includes undercover ICE agents infiltrating Denver’s courts to make arrests — as evidenced in a February video shot by the…
Three people who were contesting Denver’s urban-camping ban were found guilty on Wednesday, April 5, at the Lindsey-Flanigan courthouse. The defendants — Jerry Burton, Randy Russell and Terese Howard — were determined to have unlawfully camped on November 28, 2016, and to have interfered with police operations at one location…
Five potential jurors were immediately dismissed when they said they couldn’t remain impartial; each expressed thoughts that the camping ban ordinance, which prevents people from shielding themselves from the elements with anything in addition to the clothes on their body, was unethical.
When Nita Mosby Tyler, a Denver-based consultant, was invited to give a talk on diversity and inclusion at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, she knew that she had a skeptical audience on her hands. The white, largely conservative crowd appeared uncomfortable as she went before it to discuss racial…
Last year, Denver Police and other city departments conducted multiple sweeps of homeless encampments. The operations proved controversial, especially given allegations by individuals experiencing homelessness that at some of the sweeps, their personal belongings were thrown away by the city without a means to retrieve them — a potential violation of the…
How to make your I-70 experience enjoyable (seriously).
A bill makings its way through the Colorado Legislature would create a task force to support child-welfare caseworkers in Colorado — especially in the area of mental health. Caseworkers face numerous challenges in their work, and child-welfare departments see high rates of burnout and turnover. Nationwide, most caseworkers don’t stay on the job more…
President Donald Trump has been threatening to pull federal funding from cities that aren’t participating in federal immigration enforcement — otherwise known as sanctuary cities — ever since he issued a January 25 executive order on immigration. On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions doubled down on that threat at a press conference…
Things haven’t been easy for a local nonprofit that serves refugees, Project Worthmore, in the current political climate.
Since August, Mayor Michael Hancock and the City of Denver have been fighting a class-action lawsuit in federal court in which nine plaintiffs allege that the city violated their constitutional rights when it conducted sweeps of the homeless. The plaintiffs claim that, at various times, their possessions were trashed without…
Since the election of President Donald Trump, there have been multiple demonstrations at universities in Colorado around the #SanctuaryCampus movement, which calls upon schools of higher education to make formal declarations or enact policies that ensure that undocumented students are protected from deportation. In Colorado, they included demonstrations on November…
Dezy Saint-Nolde, better known by her activism name, Queen Phoenix, has emerged as a prominent organizer of protests and demonstrations in recent months. These included the thousands-strong November 10 protest against Donald Trump’s election, the February 18 Defend our Constitution march, a health-care rally on February 25, and a Demand Russia-Trump…
When President Trump issued an executive order on January 25 threatening to pull federal funding from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, the order mentioned that the Department of Homeland Security would start publishing a weekly report calling out jurisdictions with jails that refuse to honor Immigration and Custom Enforcement “detainer requests,” wherein ICE…
As if there was any doubt about conservative John Elway’s position on Neil Gorsuch becoming the next Supreme Court Justice, he made things clear by sending a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee with the official Broncos letterhead. “Niel is a big Denver Bronco’s fan, and I can tell you…
When Sandra Hermans was selected as one of the residents for a proposed tiny-home village at 38th and Walnut streets in RiNo, she was thrilled. The 27-year-old has been homeless since January, when she had to leave a friend’s place where she’d been staying. Suddenly, Hermans found herself having to…
On Monday, March 12, Jerry Burton visited the Denver Police headquarters, where he was able to retrieve a tent, a sleeping bag and some blankets from one of two locations where he had items taken by police officers as “evidence” that he’d violated Denver’s urban camping ban.
On Thursday, March 23, the Ogden Theatre stage will be graced by a slate of Colorado superstars: Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, DeVotchKa, Joe Sampson, and Jonny 5 and Brer Rabbit of Flobots. While it’s easy to be wowed by the star power of the lineup, the concert has…
This week, homeless advocacy group ASAP took to Facebook to announce plans for a tiny-home village to be located within the RiNo Arts District, at 38th and Walnut streets. Called “Beloved Community Village,” the tiny home village is being proposed as a 180-day pilot project, with a supporting crowd-funding campaign…
On Tuesday, March 7, a group of demonstrators gathered at Denver International Airport to welcome refugees and protest President Trump’s new “travel ban,” which he signed on March 6 and which goes into effect on March 16. The protest was an echo of a larger demonstration that took place at…
Colorado supporters of President Donald Trump made their presence known on Saturday, March 4, by staging a rally on the steps of the State Capitol building. Hundreds came to the rally, some wearing patriotic costumes (like Uncle Sam suits) and others waving “Don’t Tread on Me” or “Trump/Pence” flags. By…
Surely you’ve heard about the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. There’s an entire website dedicated to the rare and endangered species, complete with news articles, FAQs, tree octopus sightings, even a store. According to the site: The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of…
