After the Colorado Civil Union Act was approved by the Senate, sponsor Pat Steadman predicted that it would pass the House if not blocked by “extremists.” However, the measure died in the judiciary committee, with B.J. Nikkel and other Republican members voting against it. The anger this vote stirred is…
Yesterday, the Denver Post officially endorsed former Senator Chris Romer in the Denver mayor’s race, calling him a “dynamo of ideas” who would bring “the critical eye of an outsider” to the gig, since he’s never worked for the city. But in today’s shifting media environment, does the Post’s blessing…
Pueblo’s elected leaders are peeved that the city is currently $1.4 million over budget in its ongoing effort to remodel Pueblo’s historic City Hall building. Councilmembers there are comparing the project to their experience with the construction of Pueblo’s Municipal Justice Center in 2008, when costs rose some $13 million…
Governor John Hickenlooper hit the ground running in January, quickly appointing a host of people to his cabinet and also coming up with some creative, cost-saving job combinations. Which made today’s announcement of his new “Director of Paper Distribution in the Department of Natural Resources” seem a little suspect. That,…
MTV Cribs is a guilty pleasure for a lot of people, but spoofs of the show — which typically features the rockin’ homes of mega-pimpin’ athletes, movie stars and rappers — can be even funnier. A couple of weeks, ago, The Daily Show did its Cribs: Teachers Edition, an offshoot…
While James Mejia may not be considered the front-runner in the Denver mayoral race, he’s willing to push the publicity envelope to earn some attention — and possibly a few more votes. Take his decision to sit down for a video interview with stand-up comic and former Westword writer Adam…
Maine Governor Paul LePage is sticking with his decision to remove a labor-history mural from its current home inside a Department of Labor building. In Colorado, there are no similar union-lovin’ murals in government facilities for conservatives to take aim at. But we do have public artwork commemorating one of…
To date, Denver mayor’s race commercials have ranged from the slick predictability of spots for Chris Romer and James Mejia to the unintentional humor of Carol Boigon’s clip, in which she spends as much time talking about John Hickenlooper as herself and ends with the line, “I’ll do what it…
Officials from Charlotte, North Carolina — the host of the 2012 Democratic National Convention — recently came to Denver to learn from our city’s experience hosting the 2008 DNC. What was Charlotte Chamber of Commerce President Bob Morgan’s take-away after meeting with Denver’s civic leaders? The DNC will bring economic…
Update below: Earlier this week, SB 85, a bill that would establish a so-called “johns school” for people who solicit prostitutes, sailed through the Senate judiciary committee. Read it below. But the overseers of Colorado’s Sex Workers Outreach Project branch see the measure as ineffective and contradictory of current laws…
Update below: Today, in all likelihood, SB 172, intended to legalize civil unions in Colorado, will be okayed by the state senate, following debate yesterday that warmed the heart of its sponsor, Senator Pat Steadman. Next, however, the bill must be approved by the Republican-controlled House, where he thinks it…
News that Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers is paying bonuses to prosecutors who achieve a certain percentage of felony convictions at trial may be raising eyebrows among other DAs, but it’s hardly a shocker to anyone who’s followed Chambers’ other efforts to turn her office into a conviction machine…
The e-mails contained an ugly ultimatum: Annette Story had to fork over $1,500 or lose contact with her son. Kidnapping? Extortion? No, just another child/family investigator (CFI) demanding an increase in his retainer. Under current Colorado law, Story had no recourse against such an outrageous threat, but a new bill…
Former Denver Manager of Safety Fidel “Butch” Montoya is switching his endorsement in the upcoming mayoral election to James Mejia. In a strongly-worded letter e-mailed to friends Monday evening, Montoya writes that he originally intended to endorse former state senator Chris Romer, but has become “very disenchanted” with his “lack…
The morning after ten Denver mayoral candidates qualified for the ballot, Marcus Giavanni, whose petition was deemed “insufficient,” said he would file a complaint about his exclusion — and he’s done just that. The document, on view below, targets Denver clerk and recorder Stephanie O’Malley and argues that the rejection…
Lynn Bartels’s political reporting is a highlight of the Denver Post, in part because of the lively wit she often brings to her articles. And this quality is in even greater abundance on her Twitter feed, where she makes the state legislature seem like a fun and interesting place to…
Charley Garcia officially becomes Denver’s newest Manager of Safety today — the fourth person to hold the position in the last year. The first day on the job for Garcia, a former head of Denver’s Public Defender office, follows news that Police Chief Gerald Whitman has handed over his recommendation…
Wild horses get injured and sometimes die in federal roundups, and “excess” horses sent to slaughterhouses endure much harsh treatment along the way. But not everyone wants to hear about that — not even horse people, as one animal welfare group found out this weekend, when Rocky Mountain Horse Expo…
Paul Noel Fiorino was among six mayoral hopefuls who didn’t collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot — although a whopping ten others managed to do so. But unlike Marcus Giavanni, Fiorino isn’t contesting this decision. Instead, he plans to run as a write-in, even as he offers the…
Battle: Los Angeles topped the weekend box office, bringing in an estimated $36 million. But will it also improve Jeff Peckman’s chances of becoming Denver’s mayor? He hopes so. Peckman appears in numerous spots hyping the alien-invasion flick, including a featurette with assorted experts talking about extraterrestrial life of the…
The Denver mayoral race is finally starting to see some heat. Michael Hancock issued a press release Friday that called out contender Chris Romer for hiring an out-of-state political research firm to dig up information on other candidates — a well-known campaign tactic known as “opposition research.”…
Denver’s Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, the best roller derby team in the world, recently accomplished another feat: the passage of Joint Senate Resolution 11-021 by the Colorado legislature. The purpose of the resolution? To acknowledge the “leadership, development and empowerment of women that the sport of women’s flat track roller derby…
