Michael Hancock is now officially Denver’s mayor — and predictably, the speech he delivered to mark the occasion today was heavier on celebration than specifics. But other than hat tips to mayors from Speer to Hickenlooper and a quote from Plato (“This City is what it is because our citizens…
The U.S. Air Force has delayed release of an environmental impact study of its proposal to conduct intensive low-altitude training flights across a wide swath of southern Colorado — flights as low as 200 feet that had raised concerns among local ranchers and residents seeking the quiet life…
Jefferson County officials should not be encouraging pet owners to believe that “There Is No Poop Fairy.” As the illustration above indicates, scat scofflaws won’t respond to any poop-pickup commandments unless they are being watched over by real, live poop fairies…..
This week, proponents of the Denver Paid Sick Leave Initiative turned in more than triple the number of signatures needed to make the ballot. But they face plenty of obstacles, including the newly announced opposition of mayor-elect Michael Hancock…
When you’re in your third year of law school, you want something a bit meatier than dusty lectures and heavily footnoted case studies. If you’re Jon Bellish, that means you head for The Netherlands — and the trial of a man charged with some of the most heinous war crimes…
“During my tenure as Auditor, I have never had to write a transmittal letter as detailed and scalding as this one,” Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher wrote in the cover letter to his office’s recent audit of the Career Service Authority, the agency that provides human resources for 8,500 Denver…
One of the most astonishingly racist and sexist campaign videos in recent memory attacks Janice Hahn, who’s running for U.S. Representative in California; she’ll face Tea Party fave Chris Huey in a special election on July 12. And as it turns out, the clip, on view below, has a local…
You won’t find many prisons where the subject of rape behind bars is openly discussed, by inmates or staff — not because it isn’t a problem, but because it is. A Bureau of Justice Statistics report estimates that more than 200,000 adult prisoners endured sexual assaults in 2008, roughly one…
In May, Denver Paid Sick Days Initiative spokeswoman Erin Bennett predicted that the measure, which would mandate paid sick days for all non-governmental workers in Denver, be they full-time or part-time employees, would strike a chord with voters. And she thinks the number of signatures her group will turn in…
Many people Wells Fargo claims to serve gathered to protest its investment in private prison companies such as GEO, Inc., which owns an Aurora detention center. Protesters marched on an East Colfax branch as part of a national day of action to educate people about the hypocrisy they see in…
We’ve noted in this space before before the tendency among Colorado governors to load up the state parole board with former Denver police officers, as if the job was essentially an $85,000-a-year private security gig. Judging from John Hickenlooper’s new appointments to the board, that streak is very much alive…
Jared Polis and his longtime partner, Marlon Reis, are expecting their first baby this September. But the media and members of the public shouldn’t have any expectations about learning more details. At least not yet…
A week from today, Colorado is cutting — pun intended — Medicaid funding for circumcisions. According to the Associated Press, the state will join seventeen others in making the cost-saving move, which will likely please circumcision opponents, such as Paul Russo, the subject of a 1996 Westword story called “Boys…
Representative Rhonda Fields is out to put a positive face on the youth of Aurora. After hosting the first Teens Turning Political Summit at the Community College of Aurora earlier this month, Fields and her team have created a teen advisory council, composed of eighteen students who attended the summit…
Glenwood Springs’ Strawberry Days festival has been an area staple for more than a century, and this year’s edition featured train rides, a pirate-coloring contest, a pie-eating challenge and a search for a “Glenwood Idol,” among many other scheduled events. But one happening wasn’t announced in advance: a raid by…
I watched Barack Obama’s speech about withdrawing troops from Afghanistan more closely than any presidential address ever — but not for the expected reason. I was a (sober) judge in a speech-related drinking game suggested yesterday by none other than super-conservative Rush Limbaugh — one that produced thirteen minutes-plus of…
On Thursday, June 23, 2011, the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission will explain how hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations on the former Lowry Bombing Range comply with Arapahoe County’s 2007 Sustainable Growth Objectives. It will be an easy sell…..
During last night’s sophomore edition of Countdown on Current TV, Keith Olbermann featured an extended segment about Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filing an ethics complaint against Louisiana Senator David Vitter. But the man in the middle of the controversy is former Colorado senator and current Interior…
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s announcement of over 2,400 arrests — 81 of them in Colorado and Wyoming — stresses that ICE is focusing on rounding up criminal aliens. This emphasis makes sense given mounting evidence here and nationwide that assorted authorities are going well beyond this mandate…
Outraged by a federal plan to manage two Wyoming herds of wild horses into oblivion by sterilizing hundreds of mares, activists will gather outside a public hearing at the Bureau of Land Management field office in Rock Springs tonight to denounce the large-scale “experimental surgery” — the latest flashpoint in…
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has renewed its promise to focus on serious criminals for detention and deportation. “A new policy directs ICE officers and attorneys to use appropriate discretion to make sure victims and witnesses to crimes are not put into deportation proceedings,” the Associated Press reports. But that’s…
As noted earlier, Denver Post editor Greg Moore’s explanation of Michael Hancock prostitution story coverage seemed likely to irk as many critics as it placated — and Dan Maes, the Republican candidate for governor in 2010, proves the point. Maes is upset by the Moore-penned item in yesterday’s edition because…
