Catholics are pushing back against a decision by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to cut off funding to an immigrant advocacy group in Durango because it has ties to an LGBT advocacy group that supports the legalization of civil unions. The progressive national nonprofit Catholics United has started a…
This morning, the ACLU of Colorado requested a formal investigation of the Denver Police Department’s conduct with Occupy Denver during the past six and a half months. The complaint, delivered to Police Chief Robert White and the Office of the Independent Monitor, cites both First Amendment freedoms and evidence of…
Destined for Deportation begins with the personal. Jeanette Vizguerra, a mother of three children who are United States citizens and is now facing deportation, explains that she came to America not for money, but for safety. Her husband drove a bus in Mexico and was hijacked at gunpoint three times…
When Tia Jones got the call yesterday, she was elated. The Family and Senior Homeless Initiative reached its goal three and a half years early when it helped its 1,000th family transition into permanent housing on February 8. One month and sixteen more families later, it’s time to celebrate. As…
In February, Catholic Charities testified that if Colorado lawmakers legalize civil unions, it may stop providing adoption and foster care services. Now, it seems that another Catholic organization, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, has cut off funding to an immigrant advocacy group in Durango because it belongs to a…
The Denver Housing Authority did not stand on authority. Yesterday, the latest phase of Denver’s newest city housing community broke ground with passed-out pinwheels, high school drummers and speakers ranging from Mayor Michael Hancock, Representative Diana DeGette and councilwoman Judy Montero to the Flobots’ Jonny 5. Named after the Spanish…
When House Bill 1156 was killed last month before even making it to the full chamber, its supporters started immediately on a stronger effort to add transparency to the state’s foreclosure processes. But the tactics have changed: Instead of creating another bill, they created a constitutional amendment targeted at requiring…
Although Denver’s proposed urban camping ordinance is not scheduled for final consideration until May 7, the sides for and against it are already preparing for battle. Last week, the ACLU of Colorado organized an online petition against the ban, with Occupy Denver taking a stance this weekend. In a letter…
As city council continues to consider Denver’s proposed urban camping ban — and constituents continue to debate it — the Denver Rescue Mission continued a twelve-year tradition yesterday by dispatching a crew of staffers and homeless people to collect trash in and around Coors Field before the Rockies home opener…
Editor’s note: This is the latest profile in Kelsey Whipple’s ongoing series highlighting local political activists. They were wearing black, and they carried coffins. This is Carolyn Bninski’s strongest early memory of political activism, a lifestyle she would later take up and pursue for more than forty years, and it’s…
Colorado is one step closer to (hopefully) dominating the silver screen once again. Today, the House Appropriations Committee approved $3 million to fund a bill to increase the state’s film incentives. As explained in our cover story, “The Reel West,” the number of movie cameras pointed at Colorado has dwindled…
Packed with opposition in orange “Homes Not Handfuffs” buttons, yesterday’s City Council committee meeting initiated the first public discussion of Denver’s proposed, hotly debated urban camping ban. With the proposal come as many accusations as questions, many of them involving concerns it could criminalize the city’s homeless population. Key in…
“Everyone take a deep breath.” So began today’s first public meeting about the proposed urban camping ban, organized by City Council’s Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee in front of a group so large it breached fire code. While organizers stressed its purpose as an informational meeting — many more…
When it comes to the national Occupy movement, Blair Preston is less concerned with apathy than with access. In his time visiting Occupy Denver, it was the second issue that restricted his involvement, not the first, and he noticed the same problem gripping other protesters. To find a solution, he…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there are few things more uncomfortable than a high school dance — unless maybe it’s an assembly. But that’s what the Colorado Queer Youth Summit, an annual conference that gathers more than 200 LGBTQ youth ages twelve to 24, occasionally felt like to…
After a year when it was christened the Angriest City in America, Denver continues to be a hub of national (and this weekend, international) activism. Tomorrow through Sunday, Amnesty International USA will bring its 51st Annual General Meeting to the city, with panels and workshops dedicated to some of the…
As witnessed by a Westword item from October, Mayor Michael Hancock and Denver’s business and outreach communities have spent months discussing and debating a push to ban overnight camping on public property. Now that the issue is reportedly scheduled to be addressed in a City Council committee meeting on Tuesday,…
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is currently in Washington, D.C. for U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the Affordable Care Act. But in his absence, his office registered his objections to Senate Bill 12-163, which would, among other things, make possession of meth a misdemeanor rather than a class-six felony. However,…
Laurie Fitzgerald tried to tell her grandson about Trayvon Martin, about his hoodie, about his family, but it’s hard. So she taught him the basics. When asked why he’s carrrying a poster of the seventeen-year-old Florida student’s face, four-year-old Royce Edwards answers only, “Because Trayvon is dead and his daddy…
Lawmakers have passed a bill that would require the state to review cases of abuse that result in the near-fatality of a child. The bill also requires review of “incidents of egregious abuse or neglect,” a more amorphous category that the state Department of Human Services, which backed the bill,…
On Saturday, at age six months and one day, Occupy Denver rallied downtown to protest police brutality. More than 100 people gathered with signs and chants for one in a handful of protests dedicated to the topic in the past week. Although relationships between Occupy Denver and the Denver Police…
Editor’s note: This is the latest profile in Kelsey Whipple’s ongoing series highlighting local political activists. The worst day of Patty Skolnik’s life lasted 32 months. It started the day her son Michael, a 22-year-old college student, passed out. Doctors found a small dot on his brain, an asymptomatic cyst,…
