With the fight for Latino votes in the presidential race heating up nationally this week, Colorado GOP leaders recently criticized President Obama in this space for playing politics via his new policy easing back on deporting undocumented youth. Today, local Democrats struck back by criticizing the GOP for criticizing Obama…for…
Editor’s note: This election cycle, Westword is exploring the public records of television stations for information on how candidates are spending money on ads in Denver. So far, Barack Obama’s campaign is spending more money than Mitt Romney’s on Denver TV ads. A lot more…
Since the High Park fire began raging nearly two weeks ago a mere fifteen miles or so from the city she calls home, Fort Collins Mayor Karen Weitkunat has been getting calls of fear like she’s never heard before. “I’ve had citizens call and say, ‘I’ve never been so scared…
Just a few weeks after Denver began enforcing its urban camping ban, Mayor Michael Hancock said the new policy is going well, adding that some of the folks who were sleeping on the street have since gone to live with friends and family. And they haven’t gone to the suburbs,…
Opponents huffed and puffed, but the Colorado Supreme Court did not allow the Colorado Bankers Association and the Independent Bankers of Colorado to blow the house down on Initiative 84’s official language. In a ruling made public yesterday, the court decided to allow the proposed foreclosure amendment to move ahead…
Over the weekend, while reporting at the launch of Mitt Romney’s Colorado campaign headquarters, we asked some of the state’s GOP officials in attendance, what they thought of President Barack Obama’s new policy about deportations and undocumented youth. Unsurprisingly, they’re not pleased…
Former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, who is now running for president as a Libertarian, stopped in Denver yesterday for Pridefest. He took a break from schmoozing with potential voters to chat with Westword about his campaign, the Libertarian Party, marijuana, gay marriage and his ongoing battle to get…
In the Denver metro area, immigrants are more likely to own small businesses than folks born in the United States. Not that much more likely, but the data presented in a new national report should at least call into question notions that immigrants influence the economy simply by displacing U.S…
Mitt Romney’s in town! Well, actually, he’s not. But his campaign is — and the Colorado team is officially in full swing with the official opening of the presidential candidate and presumptive Republican nominee’s offices in Lakewood on Saturday…
The Boulder County ACLU has come out in firm opposition to a proposed ordinance that would require approval from the city manager to allow protesters to gather in city parks. Although the topic is still in the brainstorming stages and won’t merit a decision for months, its opponents fear it…
Update, 9 a.m. June 16: This event has been canceled. Original post: Although the protesters are expecting a showdown, the results could be more like a meltdown: Tomorrow, members of the Young Americans for Freedom (conservative and libertarian youth) and Denver’s South Suburban Freedom Fighters (formerly the South Suburban Young…
Today brings big news, high hopes and timid reservations about immigration. The Obama administration has announced it will halt the deportation of undocumented youth who immigrated to the country as children and don’t pose threats to national security, and will offer work permits to eligible students. The news follows years…
In the almost three months since the Colorado Progressive Coalition began a fight for Initiative 84, organizers have collected more than three dozen stories about Colorado foreclosures. In the near future, they will be part of a story map on the group’s website documenting personal horror stories while the CPC…
Editor’s note: This is the latest profile in Kelsey Whipple’s ongoing series highlighting local political activists. For anyone who’s ever seen Rushmore, Steve Fenberg’s college experience makes him sound like a much better-adjusted Max Fischer. “I started a lot of clubs and stuff,” he says modestly of his experience at…
This could get tiring. Senator Mark Udall has announced that he will head to the Senate floor every day to push the same piece of legislation — the Wind Production Tax Credit — until Congress responds and passes it. That means speech after speech after speech on the same issue,…
Update below: Will federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a presence at this weekend’s 115th annual Strawberry Days Festival in Glenwood Springs? That’s what youth-led immigrant rights group AJUA wants to know. AJUA sent a letter to ICE, explaining that the agency’s presence at last year’s fair “traumatized our community.”…
If you’ve kept abreast with the Latest Word’s Occupy Denver coverage, the following protester needs no introduction — but we’ll give one to him anyway. Through the Thunderdome, the local movement’s early anarchist kitchen, Justin “Crunchy” Gwin and its other chefs focused on the politics of food, feeding activists for…
Update: After a six-day sit-in and hunger strike, young undocumented immigrants Javier Hernandez and Veronica Gomez left their brief home at the Obama For America headquarters at 5:20 p.m. today. As the National Immigrant Youth Alliance pushes plans to spread their call for an executive order from Obama to the…
U.S. Representative Doug Lamborn is proud of himself — and he should be. After all, the Colorado Springs Republican has scaled new heights of stupidity in the halls of Congress, and that’s not an easy task. Last week, Lamborn, chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, freaked out…
When developer-turned-muckraker Mike Zinna won a modest $1,791 judgement against a former Jefferson County commissioner in 2009, after years of convoluted intrigues and litigation, his supporters hailed the decision as an important, if largely symbolic, victory for the rights of online government critics. But this week, an appeals court ruled…
Governor John Hickenlooper has signed HB-1084, a bill stiffening hit-and-run penalties that was inspired by Tim Albo, who nearly died after being struck by Brandon Mondragon in 2010. Albo’s family is thrilled by this turn of events, but their enthusiasm is tempered by concern for Tim, who’s struggling with a…
Editor’s Note: The following is a guest-post by Chuck Strouse, editor-in-chief of Westword’s sister paper, the Miami New Times. It’s video side-bar to Strouse’s piece that ran in Westword this week, “Welcome back, Jim Crow: A tradition of keeping African-Americans voters from the polls.”As I show in my column this…
