Politics & Government

Jack Phillips of Denver’s Masterpiece Cakeshop is reportedly shocked and appalled that someone asked him to bake a birthday cake for Satan. But was his rejection of this entreaty against the law? A representative of The Satanic Temple, a Salem, Massachusetts-based organization that’s been encouraging folks to make just such a request of Phillips and other bakers who feel they should be allowed to refuse service to gay customers because of their Christian faith, says yes.

A photo has surfaced in which state senator Kevin Lundberg, a Republican from Larimer County, is seen alongside Joshua Yeakel, a reputed neo-Nazi with ties to William Scott Planer, an alleged white supremacist who was arrested in Colorado Springs this summer. In the image, taken at a pro-Donald Trump rally in July, Yeakel is wearing a T-shirt that references The Daily Stormer, a website that appeals to extremist groups. But Lundberg says he had no idea about Yeakel’s background or the meaning of the shirt when he smiled for the shot and rejects any suggestion that he was consciously cozying up to the alt-right.

Marco Dorado, profiled by Westword in March, is one of five Colorado Dreamers headed to Washington, D.C., this week to ask members of Congress to pass the DREAM Act to protect nearly 800,000 DACA recipients in limbo since the Trump administration pulled the plug on the program last month.

“Operation Safe City” made it clear that the feds consider Denver a sanctuary jurisdiction. But readers are divided on what that means.

With or without a legal definition of “sanctuary city,” it’s now clear that the White House, DHS and ICE all believe that Denver fits the bill.

As the traditionally military-friendly National Football League finds itself in an existential crisis with players and some coaches participating in the #TakeAKnee movement, which was inspired by President Trump’s “son of a bitch” comments last weekend, John Elway decided to offer his two cents on the debate. During a weekly…

The extent to which hackers and other shadowy operatives from Russia meddled in the U.S. election last November seems to be expanding as additional evidence comes to light. Facebook has come under scrutiny after it was revealed that the social-media company sold and displayed over 3,000 political advertisements related to…

A tip and a year’s worth of reporting later, Westword‘s sister paper the Phoenix New Times caught the nation’s attention when it published a story on September 13 detailing two Phoenix-area Motel 6s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Documents reveal arrests of undocumented immigrations at courthouses in Denver are more common than anyone, including the City of Denver, suspected.

Immigration enforcement is an especially contentious issue right now, and it should come as no surprise that Denver’s recent decision to pass an ordinance that limits the city’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement has divided Denver residents.

Mark Williams doesn’t try to sugar coat his minimal experience in politics. The newest candidate for Colorado’s 2nd Congressional district even points to his lack of experience with pride.

A member of the Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists says alt-right individuals or organizations are impersonating her group and others like it in order to falsely portray the antifa movement in general as ultra-violent and morally bankrupt. She adds that the fields of battle include the Internet, where a bogus Colorado Springs Antifa Facebook page remains online at this writing, and the streets, via methods such as fake fliers, bogus letters and dubious graffiti intended to rile up and confuse both the mainstream media and the citizenry as a whole.

Today, September 13, the State of Colorado announced that it will join a lawsuit originally filed by New York challenging President Trump’s plan to pull the plug on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, shorthanded as DACA. In a statement about his reasons for taking this action, Governor John Hickenlooper said, “President Trump’s decision to end the DACA program is outrageous and risks the futures of more than 17,000 Coloradans.”

When the ACLU of Colorado heard that Iraqi detainees being held inside Aurora’s immigrant detention center – a 1,500-bed facility run by the private prison company GEO Group – were being singled out and harassed by the facility’s guards, ACLU attorneys and staff members went to investigate.

An Erie animal sanctuary got a jolt on Thursday, August 31, when agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations arrived to allegedly inquire about the status of two pigs — Lucy and Ethel — who were “rescued” by animal rights activists from a Utah factory farm in early July.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would consider whether Denver’s Masterpiece Cakeshop discriminated against a gay couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, by refusing to make them a wedding cake just over a year after the case was rejected by the Colorado Supreme Court. Now, the administration of President Donald Trump, as represented by the Department of Justice, has weighed in, filing an amicus brief that sides with baker Jack Phillips, who says the denial was based on his religious beliefs.

On Wednesday, September 6, Fair Districts Colorado filed three ballot initiatives with the Secretary of State’s office that will attack what they believe is widespread gerrymandering of election districts.

President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA, prompted the walkout of more than a thousand Denver students on September 5. Among the demonstrators making their feelings heard was Marco Dorado, whose story we shared in a March post headlined “Meet Marco Dorado, Exhibit A in What’s Wrong With Trump’s Immigration Policies.” But yesterday, someone else told Dorado’s tale: Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, who used him as an example of why eliminating DACA is cruel and counterproductive during a speech delivered on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The students came from schools all across Denver. Many marched miles from their respective campuses in long lines that stretched along streets and boulevards. Some chanted. Some held signs. But they were all headed to one location on Tuesday morning: the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria Campus, to protest President Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

As President Trump reportedly considers ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Mayor Michael Hancock had a message for the White House on Thursday, August 31: “Mr. President, leave our DACA children alone.”

Standing behind a podium at a welcoming ceremony on August 23, Araceli Velasquez, a young mother of three U.S.-born children, holds back tears as she surveys a crowd gathered on her behalf in a large worship hall. The building, and many of the faces, are still unfamiliar to her, but they won’t remain so for long.

Victor Mitchell, a successful entrepreneur and onetime state legislator, is seeking the Republican nomination for governor of Colorado in 2018. In the following in-depth interview, Mitchell details his unexpected personal story, his rise to business success and proposals that he sees as differentiating him from other candidates.