If you thought the folks behind the 51st State Initiative were discouraged when only five of eleven counties where the ballot measure ran voted to secede from Colorado, you’d be wrong. The organizers are thrilled by what they describe as an “OVERWHELMING success” (the caps are theirs). They’re also readying…
Yesterday, voters in five of eleven counties considering the question of whether they should secede from Colorado to create a 51st state answered “yes.” The odds of this actually happening are microscopic, since Colorado’s legislature or voters and the U.S. Congress would have to sign off. But the spirit of…
Votes are still being counted, but the suspense when it comes to the two biggest measures on ballots statewide is over — if there was ever any at all. The Denver Post has made the call on Proposition AA, the marijuana tax measure, and Amendment 66, an education proposal, with…
Last week, we introduced you to “Got Insurance?,” a pro-Obamacare media campaign featuring a photo of three aging frat boys wilding out with a keg. The campaign’s Adam Fox told us at the time he was working to push the imagery through various social media platforms — and yesterday, he…
Among the least-insured groups in the country are young men in good health. How to get them to take advantage of the new health-care law, now known by supporters and critics alike as Obamacare? The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and ProgressNow Colorado Education, the folks behind the 2011 Thanks Obamacare!…
What role should mental health play in a discussion of gun-control legislation? Is it possible to limit access to firearms without trampling on the rights of those who battle mental illness? Is a future consensus on gun control within the realm of possibility, or are debates over the Second Amendment…
A new report on access to public records in Colorado scolds state agencies for excessive fees, failing to put records online so more citizens can make use of them, and for “pre-digital age thinking.” On the same day, attorneys for James Holmes file a motion in the Aurora theater shootings…
Last month, two new reports on Colorado’s prison system urged officials to get smarter in how they spend precious tax dollars — specifically, in how they classify and monitor high-risk offenders, while figuring out which inmates are more in need of rehab than expensive cell time. Now, a pilot program…
The 2014 elections may seem a long way off, but not to Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Hogue came to Colorado to speak at a weekend fundraiser for Colorado NARAL that attracted numerous political heavyweights. But she’s sticking around today to meet with locally based activists, in order…
If you see the Independence Institute’s Jon Caldara smiling today, here’s one likely reason: He provided the de facto name for the lead segment on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show last night. Sitting to the side of a continental-U.S. map plastered with the Caldara-uttered phrase “Wave of Fear,” Maddow explored the…
Late last night, it became official: Senator John Morse and Representative Angela Giron lost recall elections prompted by their support of firearms-control bills. The defeats thrilled gun-rights groups and conservatives, while disappointing progressives who’d recently rejoiced over the measures’ passage. Below, get reactions from the National Rifle Association, Rocky Mountain…
“Oh, can’t you see/This award shames our degrees/Brought a criminal to town/So we’re marchin’ all around.” This was one chant repeated by a group of students, professors, Occupy Denver leftovers and other activists Monday afternoon outside the Hyatt Regency. They were expressing dismay over the University of Denver’s decision to…
It’s been a long, long 25 years since Donny Andrews, barely out of his teens, ended up behind bars for a string of burglaries he embarked upon to support his cocaine habit. But that quarter-century represents less than a third of the sentence heaped on Andrews, one of the harshest…
Like many reporters, I’ve written plenty of stories about guns over the years. But I’d never fired one — not a real one, anyhow. A gun-owning friend thought that was wrong given what I do for a living and set out to change it in a big way — by…
David Gunn knows he’s stepping into the crossfire. He knows the gun-control folks are likely to view him as a crank while gun owners denounce him as the Antichrist. But the former gun shop owner is an inventor by inclination and has been a firearms buff ever since he was…
On September 10, as we’ve reported, voters in southeastern Colorado will decide whether state senators John Morse and Angela Giron should be recalled because of their advocacy of gun-control measures. But with the election looming, a technical question over the vote threatens to make a controversial matter even messier. Hence,…
Senator Vicki Marble, come on down! You’re the next contestant on The Politics is Wrong! Marble, a Republican from Fort Collins, was apparently trying to be sympathetic to African-Americans at a State Capitol meeting yesterday, but her words sure as hell didn’t come out that way — unless you think…
Gun enthusiasts have long accused Colorado’s Democratic leadership of “following the script” established by major gun-control advocacy groups, such as Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), in their campaign to pass legislation expanding background checks and limiting magazine capacity — two measures that now have state senators John Morse and Angela…
The long-simmering battle over the future of a major hunk of southeastern Colorado may have taken a giant step toward resolution in Pueblo yesterday. A senior Army official assured ranchers that the Pentagon has no plans to expand the sprawling, 367-square-mile Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site — and might even rescind…
Last month, we told you about Jaxine Bubis, a political hopeful whose campaign for embattled state senator John Morse’s seat was derailed after it was revealed she’d written several steamy books — read excerpts below — and referred to herself as a “grammy who writes erotic romance.” Now, however, she’s…
Surrounded by friends and advocates at a sunny park in Aurora today, immigrant Jeanette Vizguerra celebrated a victory: She was released yesterday from the immigration detention center where she’d been held since July 24. But her fight to remain in the U.S. isn’t over. Federal authorities have given Vizguerra a…
Immigrant Jeanette Vizguerra has been fighting for years to stay in the United States. The mother of four ended up in deportation proceedings after she was pulled over in 2009 for driving with expired tags. Vizguerra was arrested and put in an immigration detention center. After being released, she fought…
