Tuesday night, Boulder City Council reduced fines and approved no jail time for first and second convictions on sixty municipal offenses — an effort to prevent a flood of minor cases (like Occupy Boulder camping tickets) from filling courtrooms. Some aspects of these changes please the ACLU of Boulder. Others…
The headlines say that Rick Santorum, of all people, was the big winner yesterday among wannabe Republican presidential nominees thanks to victories in the Colorado and Minnesota caucuses and the Missouri primary. But his prize didn’t come in delegates, since none were at stake in any of the contests –…
Despite the obligatory squawks from lawmakers about the need for transparency in government, few of their actions are quite as transparent as their efforts to shield internal bureaucratic processes from outside scrutiny. For a demonstration of this principle in action, look no further than two bills currently creeping through the…
When last we spoke with Colorado Republican Party head Ryan Call about the February 7 Colorado caucuses, he noted that Newt Gingrich had not scheduled any state events. But that’s changed. At this hour, Gingrich is scheduled at a west-side rally, with another assembly juxtaposing him and Rick Santorum. Meanwhile,…
A running gag in the classic comedy Raising Arizona is that just about everybody in the vicinity of Tempe is packing heat — even the pimple-faced kid at the convenience store, who whips out a Dirty Harry special and starts blasting away at stickup man Nicholas Cage. But it’s no…
GOP lawmaker Laura Bradford has been making headlines lately — and not for her adorable “cottage food bill,” also now being called the “sweet bill,” which would allow bakers and cake-makers to sell their delicious wares directly to consumers. Will the future of House Bill 12-1027 be affected by Bradford’s…
This afternoon at the Colorado state house, the agriculture, natural resources and energy committee will consider what’s being characterized as the nation’s toughest ban of trans fat at schools. Senator Lucia Guzman is surprised by all the attention the measure has received to date, in part because, to her, it’s…
After ex-Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan’s November arrest for allegedly trading meth for sex, he was jailed in a detention facility bearing his name. No wonder county commissioners soon began considering a policy forbidding the naming of public buildings after individuals, living or dead. But now, this conversation has been…
During the same week that Debe Bell was convicted on 35 counts of animal cruelty (see the photo at right), a bill to establish a registry for animal abusers failed to get out of the agriculture committee. Why? Here’s the take of Representative Jeanne Labuda, the measure’s sponsor…
Update below: Yesterday’s Denver Police news conference was among the odder in recent memory — but also among the more welcome. The DPD’s concession that Representative Laura Bradford had received special privileges rather than being busted for a DUI, and its willingness to offer details about how it happened, suggests…
As advertised, Ron Paul appeared in Denver today, speaking at the Grand Ballroom of the Renaissance Denver Hotel — one of three scheduled Colorado stops in advance of next week’s caucuses. Look below to see images from his visit, courtesy of photographer Javid Rezvani…
Ron Paul isn’t the only presidential candidate in Colorado today; Rick Santorum is slated to speak at the Lone Tree Golf Club Lounge at 10 a.m. But Paul will certainly make a bigger splash, with three events on tap. And in advance, his surrogates are taking shots at one of…
Growing up and watching Crossfire in Tempe, Arizona, 33-year-old Elena Nunez learned to trust her local government approximately as far as she could throw it. In the late ’80s, Arizona Governor Evan Mecham was impeached on grounds of misusing funds and obstruction of justice, and the event, followed by others,…
The Florida primary takes place tomorrow, with Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich expected to spend their day slugging it out for Republican votes in the Sunshine State. But not Representative Ron Paul, who’s instead scheduled a full day of campaigning in Colorado, a week before the February 7 caucuses here…
Occupy Denver was among groups in 27 cities to rally in support of Occupy Oakland, which experienced a recent round of 300 arrests. About 125 protesters gathered for an impromptu march that shut down large sections of traffic near Broadway and Colfax between 7:30 and 10 p.m. and attracted the…
It probably shouldn’t have been a surprise that Doug Lamborn, Republican congressman from Colorado Springs, decided to boycott President Obama’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday. Lamborn, after all, is the same guy who referred to Obama’s economic and debt-reduction policies as a “tar baby” in July. (Oops, guess,…
In the war of words over the plan to round up thousands of wild horses on federal lands, it’s the images that speak loudest. Even as the Bureau of Land Management argues that the thinning of herds is for their own good, critics of the program keep coming up with…
The first time Sonia Skakich-Scrima learned about fracking, she was reading the Denver Business Journal almost a year ago to date. What she read alarmed her, but what she Googled afterward tripled that. “I tried to understand why we didn’t care about the environment or the aftermath,” she says. “I…
Of all the constitutional freedoms cited in defense of the Occupy movement, the First Amendment is staked most territorially. But in Occupy Boulder, attorneys defending protesters arrested for illegal camping are using the Fourth Amendment in a push to dismiss evidence gathered when police officers opened tents to look inside…
Earlier this month, Colorado Republican Party chairman Ryan Call argued that this year’s Colorado Republican Caucus will mean more than ever, in part because the date was moved up to February 7. When Mitt Romney looked poised to sweep Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, this claim looked suspect, but…
After six months at the head of Mayor Michael Hancock’s communications staff, Wil Alston began a new position yesterday leading the same function for Denver’s finance department. Hancock created the position specifically for Alston, who joined his administration in July 2011 and has long been a friend. In the interim,…
What Tobacco-Free Aurora lacks in longevity and membership, it makes up for in ambition. Founded a little more than a year ago with a rotating volunteer staff of twelve to thirty, the group recently pushed the entirety of its efforts toward creating a city ordinance regulating the sale of tobacco…
