From Pennsylvania to West Virginia (and Colorado), pictures of bright orange, iron-laced water pouring down streams and out of kitchen faucets have been shared by activists to demonstrate the dangers of coal mining. But one photo scheduled for display before Congress’ energy and mineral resources subcommittee was deemed “inappropriate” by…
One of the few hotly contested primary races in Colorado elections this year is the brawl between Leslie Hansen and George Brauchler over who will be the Republican candidate for district attorney in the 18th Judicial District, vying to succeed Carol Chambers as top prosecutor in one of the state’s…
Last November, we introduced you to ThanksObamacare.org, a local website aiming to transform “Obamacare” from an attack label used by opponents of the 2010 health-care law to a term of endearment. This week, the site’s released a new video, “Don’t Deny Us,” which expands on this theme as political observers…
After almost a week of delay, the Denver Police Department began enforcing the city’s new urban camping ordinance yesterday afternoon. Although the ban legally took effect May 29, officers extended the wait in order to provide more educational opportunities about the ordinance and its legal implications. The overnight effects are…
Lay Catholics and several big organizations, including the Denver-based Gill Foundation, have saved the budget of an immigrant advocacy group in Durango whose funding was yanked by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The Catholics stripped the immigrant group, called Companeros, of $30,000 because it belongs to a coalition that…
Yesterday, the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals struck down a key provision in the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, shorthanded as DOMA. And while the ruling doesn’t directly impact Colorado, where a fight over a civil unions bill killed not once but twice was the story of the just-completed…
Today marks the announced effective date of Denver’s new urban camping ban, an ordinance that makes it illegal to camp on public or private property without permission. After months of debate, followed by a two-week implementation period, both Occupy Denver and the homeless community prepared for its first day in…
Why is presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney scheduled to make a campaign stop in the Town of Craig at 8:30 a.m. this morning? After all, the community’s population — 9,464, according to the 2010 census — makes it the sort of place most candidates fly over. The answer can…
A few years after Harold and Kumar visited White Castle — but before they escaped from Guantanamo Bay — Kumar Patel’s real-life alter ego, Kal Penn, served a two-year-stint as the associate director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement. In 2008, the House and 24 star campaigned in…
Yesterday, we recapped how Rachel Maddow had made Mike Coffman a national laughingstock over recent birther comments and his bizarre interview with 9News’ Kyle Clark, when he said he stood by his statement that he misspoke and he apologized five times in a row. Now, plenty of Maddow’s MSNBC colleagues…
Editor’s note: This is the latest profile in Kelsey Whipple’s ongoing series highlighting local political activists. The first time Magalie Lerman knew she had a drug problem was not the first time she overdosed. Nor did she realize the second time. Today, Lerman is two and a half years sober…
This week’s feature, “Sucker Punch,” traces how an assault at a heavy metal concert turned into a habitual criminal prosecution in Arapahoe County, with one of the defendants facing a mountain of time while the other got probation. In the three-way race for district attorney in the 18th Judicial District,…
Ever wonder who can afford to go to presidential fundraisers? Or who gets to attend without paying big bucks? We asked photog Christopher Morgan to find out during yesterday’s event at the Hyatt Hotel, which President Barack Obama highlighted shortly after delivering the commencement address at the Air Force Academy…
Political observers realized that Mike Coffman’s recent birther comments were a political gaffe. But even the wisest of them couldn’t have guessed his clumsy attempts to deal with the fallout would transform him into a nationwide punchline. Thanks for the latter goes to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, who last night zinged…
A Good Samaritan bill aimed at ending busts after 911 overdose calls cleared the Colorado Senate in February. But while the measure passed the House prior to the civil unions logjam that prompted a controversial special session and awaits John Hickenlooper’s signature, it was diluted in ways that leave a…
Initiative 52 would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, as long as they provide an individual tax identification number, last year’s tax return and a form of government-issued ID from their country of origin. Today, backers of the initiative held a press conference at the Capitol to call for…
The mass protest against the weekend’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit might be 1,000 miles from Denver, but its ties to the city are represented by at least 25 Occupy Denver protesters who traveled to attend. And when Occupy Wall Street placed a call for national action this weekend, the…
On Monday, Denver City Council voted 9-4 to pass an urban camping ordinance, and the meeting wasn’t pretty: Opponents shouted “Shame!” at the councilmembers, turned their backs on the proceedings and launched a sit-in outside council chambers. From there, roughly fifty protesters followed the pro-ban council members to their cars,…
With a scribble of his ceremonial pen this morning, Governor John Hickenlooper set Colorado on a path not unlike that of the Iron Man himself, Robert Downey, Jr. No, our fair state isn’t going to rehab. Instead, lawmakers, film-industry insiders and Colorado boosters hope that the beefed-up film incentives package…
John Hickenlooper and Mike Coffman aren’t exactly ideological twins. But at the end of this big political week in the State of Colorado, they both face political fallout, albeit for very different reasons: a special session that failed to pass civil unions and comments questioning Barack Obama’s birth records, respectively…
Update: As we reported in our original coverage below, 6th Congressional District rep Mike Coffman made the wrong kind of news via audio of him questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States; hear it below. That’s the kind of ammo prized by election opponents. And Joe…
Representative Jared Polis wants to introduce legislation that promises to reverse Congress’s controversial decision to keep pizza lsbeled a “vegetable” in school lunches. “What Congress has done, believe it or not, is defied logic,” Polis said in front of a crowd of lunchtime students at Louisville Middle School on Monday…
