As noted in our latest update about Friday’s shooting at Arapahoe High School, the national media continues to closely follow the tragic incident’s fallout — and even though it appears that Karl Pierson legally bought the weapon he used to critically injure fellow student Claire Davis, the attack has motivated…
Earlier this year, we told the story of Imelda Valenzuela Gonzalez, a mother of three who owns a hair salon and is one of a growing number of undocumented immigrants speaking out about their cases in the hopes of stopping their deportations. At a court hearing in April, Valenzuela Gonzalez’s…
Five years ago, a jaw-dropping scandal rocked Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system: A popular judge, known for the tough sentences he handed out to juveniles, had schemed with another judge to take millions in kickbacks from the builder and operator of two private youth detention facilities. Yet behind that brazen bit…
Every bureaucracy needs its whistleblowers and gadflies, its disgruntled ex-gofers and disillusioned ex-go-getters, eager to expose government waste and folly. Without them, the smell would become unbearable, like a public toilet that hasn’t been disinfected in months. And that makes the disappearance of The Real Colorado Department of Corrections, an…
The Colorado Democratic Party is lambasting the Republican candidates for Senate for opposing access to contraception. The Democrats have declared that Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, state Representative Amy Stephens and state Senator Owen Hill “have lined up to support intrusive polices that would restrict a woman’s right to…
The citizens of Deer Trail have yet to vote on a proposed ordinance to allow the hunting of drones within the town limits. The date of the vote has been postponed until December 10 because of legal challenges to the petitions and may be postponed again. But that hasn’t stopped…
With a flood of Kennedy material coming out to mark the fiftieth anniversary of that surreal day in Dallas, brace yourself for plenty of resurgent conspiracy theories concerning who and what was behind JFK’s assassination. Despite its come-on title, JFK: A President Betrayed, a new documentary playing on DirecTV and…
We recently introduced Got Insurance?, a Colorado-based campaign intended to encourage uninsured folks to sign up for health-care coverage. Critics dubbed the first batch of ads “brosurance,” with Congressman Cory Gardner ripping an image featuring a keg stand. Now comes the second wave of spots, which is stirring up more…
If you thought the folks behind the 51st State Initiative were discouraged when only five of eleven counties where the ballot measure ran voted to secede from Colorado, you’d be wrong. The organizers are thrilled by what they describe as an “OVERWHELMING success” (the caps are theirs). They’re also readying…
Yesterday, voters in five of eleven counties considering the question of whether they should secede from Colorado to create a 51st state answered “yes.” The odds of this actually happening are microscopic, since Colorado’s legislature or voters and the U.S. Congress would have to sign off. But the spirit of…
Votes are still being counted, but the suspense when it comes to the two biggest measures on ballots statewide is over — if there was ever any at all. The Denver Post has made the call on Proposition AA, the marijuana tax measure, and Amendment 66, an education proposal, with…
Last week, we introduced you to “Got Insurance?,” a pro-Obamacare media campaign featuring a photo of three aging frat boys wilding out with a keg. The campaign’s Adam Fox told us at the time he was working to push the imagery through various social media platforms — and yesterday, he…
Among the least-insured groups in the country are young men in good health. How to get them to take advantage of the new health-care law, now known by supporters and critics alike as Obamacare? The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and ProgressNow Colorado Education, the folks behind the 2011 Thanks Obamacare!…
What role should mental health play in a discussion of gun-control legislation? Is it possible to limit access to firearms without trampling on the rights of those who battle mental illness? Is a future consensus on gun control within the realm of possibility, or are debates over the Second Amendment…
A new report on access to public records in Colorado scolds state agencies for excessive fees, failing to put records online so more citizens can make use of them, and for “pre-digital age thinking.” On the same day, attorneys for James Holmes file a motion in the Aurora theater shootings…
Last month, two new reports on Colorado’s prison system urged officials to get smarter in how they spend precious tax dollars — specifically, in how they classify and monitor high-risk offenders, while figuring out which inmates are more in need of rehab than expensive cell time. Now, a pilot program…
The 2014 elections may seem a long way off, but not to Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Hogue came to Colorado to speak at a weekend fundraiser for Colorado NARAL that attracted numerous political heavyweights. But she’s sticking around today to meet with locally based activists, in order…
If you see the Independence Institute’s Jon Caldara smiling today, here’s one likely reason: He provided the de facto name for the lead segment on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show last night. Sitting to the side of a continental-U.S. map plastered with the Caldara-uttered phrase “Wave of Fear,” Maddow explored the…
Late last night, it became official: Senator John Morse and Representative Angela Giron lost recall elections prompted by their support of firearms-control bills. The defeats thrilled gun-rights groups and conservatives, while disappointing progressives who’d recently rejoiced over the measures’ passage. Below, get reactions from the National Rifle Association, Rocky Mountain…
“Oh, can’t you see/This award shames our degrees/Brought a criminal to town/So we’re marchin’ all around.” This was one chant repeated by a group of students, professors, Occupy Denver leftovers and other activists Monday afternoon outside the Hyatt Regency. They were expressing dismay over the University of Denver’s decision to…
It’s been a long, long 25 years since Donny Andrews, barely out of his teens, ended up behind bars for a string of burglaries he embarked upon to support his cocaine habit. But that quarter-century represents less than a third of the sentence heaped on Andrews, one of the harshest…
Like many reporters, I’ve written plenty of stories about guns over the years. But I’d never fired one — not a real one, anyhow. A gun-owning friend thought that was wrong given what I do for a living and set out to change it in a big way — by…
