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,…
Cranbeary the polar bear is no stranger to loss or heartbreak. Two years ago, she lost her mate, Frosty, who died of liver cancer at the age of 25, just one month after Cranbeary arrived at the zoo to er, become acquainted with him. And last week, Cranbeary’s aunt, 25-year-old…
Immigration advocates are hopeful that a new agreement between the Roaring Fork School District and three local police departments will put an end to the controversial collaboration between school resource officers and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. But they also fear that the agreement doesn’t go far enough…
The Ricardo Flores Magon Academy charter school can continue operating. Today, the Charter School Institute voted to extend the embattled school’s contract for five more years — with several stipulations. Among them: Find a new leader. The school’s founder and most recent principal, Marcos Martinez, resigned along with two others…
Small produce growers will now be able to sell their products directly to consumers, thanks to a bill signed by Governor John Hickenlooper. Dubbed the “Local Foods, Local Jobs Act,” the bill exempts home kitchens from certain health inspections. Its purpose is twofold, sponsor Senator Gail Schwartz says: to boost…
Teachers at Colorado’s largest online school are likely overworked and underpaid, according to an investigation by KUNC reporter Grace Hood. She found that most of the teachers at Colorado Virtual Academy make less than $35,000 per year — even middle school English instructors who, during the first semester last year,…
CREEP! is a movie about the making of a movie whose biggest star is a phallic monster made out of a rug. The monster is from outer space and it’s hungry. Oh, and its mouth? It looks like a vagina. The CREEP! crew, including Colorado Springs-based director Pete Schuermann, launched…
There are no amusement parks in Aurora, no baseball stadiums or aquariums or world-class art museums. But the upstart city to the east does have some gems when it comes to tourist attractions, as explained in this week’s cover story, “Wish You Were Here!” The story tells the tale of…
Aurora, Colorado has several things going for it. While its collection of pawn shops and motels may or may not be among them, the city’s water definitely is. (Check out this impressive list of awards!) This week’s cover story, “Wish You Were Here!” explains how the eager city is hoping…
A federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge conducted in Aurora over seven days last week and early this week resulted in the identification of twelve immigrants subject to deportation, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok says…
The addition of a 1,500-room hotel and conference center in Aurora would definitely give out-of-towners a reason to visit. And Aurora is looking for ’em, as explained in our cover story, “Wish You Were Here!” Yesterday, the company that wants to build said behemoth hotel made a pitch for the…
Westword caught some sh*t for our Sh*t People From Denver Say video, especially from readers who thought we omitted a few key catchphrases. So we compiled a list of sh*t our video should have said, including this line submitted by a reader: “All the good ethnic food is in Aurora.”…
Marcos Martinez, the controversial founder of the Ricardo Flores Magon Academy and subject of our cover story “A Hard Line,” has resigned. So, too, have two other employees whom the school’s board of trustees asked to take a paid leave while they investigated complaints against them. The school is now…
Life Skills Center lost its appeal yesterday before the State Board of Education, which sided with Denver Public Schools’ decision to close the school. The last-chance high, which Westword profiled in 2007, will shut its doors after eight years of educating all who showed up on its doorstep, no matter…
Regis University in Denver is taking the lead on a program to teach online college courses in refugee camps in Malawi and Kenya, and in urban Syria. The four-year pilot project is called “Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins” and it aims to solve a stark problem: the dearth…
You’d probably never honeymoon in Aurora, Colorado. But city officials hope the strip mall-laden Denver suburb will attract visitors from several niche demographics, including obscure conferences, sick people (and their loved ones) who come to be treated at the city’s top-notch hospitals, and huge youth sports tournaments. To help lure…
Today is the last in a seven-day “surge” being conducted in Aurora by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Their supposed target? Deportable aliens who have been arrested, or those issued court summonses who are fugitives or who have been previously deported or convicted of crimes. It’s the summonses part that’s causing…
Aurora, Colorado, is not a place you’d pick for your weekend getaway. There’s nothing breathtaking about the pawn shops, thrift stores and hair salons that line Colfax Avenue, once the Denver suburb’s main drag. Aurora isn’t an iconic ski destination, either; there are no mountains here, no Heidi Klum or…
Denver Public Schools is exploring whether to ask taxpayers to approve more moolah. The district has convened a giant committee of community members (72 of them!), including some familiar DPS faces, tasked with recommending whether DPS should — in the face of deep state funding cuts — ask voters in…
Update: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revised an earlier statement that ICE is screening traffic summonses in Aurora to identify undocumented immigrants who are fugitives, have been previously deported or have been convicted of crimes. The revised statement, sent two hours after the original, says ICE is screening court summonses,…
Authorities say an embalmer at a Lakewood funeral home found a creepy way to make some cash: pawning the gold teeth of the dead. Adrian Kline, 43, of Brighton, has been indicted on eight counts of providing false information to a pawn broker, two counts of doing the same to…
Local immigrant advocates aren’t exactly elated at the news that the Obama administration plans to phase out a controversial program that allows local law enforcement to act as immigration officers. “At the end of the day, there’s another elephant in the room,” says Justin Valas, of the Colorado Immigrant Rights…
