Twelve years ago, based almost entirely on the testimony of a troubled adolescent girl with a long history of telling preposterous stories, an Arapahoe County jury found Charles Farrar guilty of a horrible crime. That testimony was recanted not long after the trial, but Farrar is still in prison, serving…
In case you doubted the importance of Colorado when it comes to next week’s election, here’s evidence that it’s seen as a key to control of the U.S. Senate and more: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow will be broadcasting from Denver tonight for a program that’s expected to take a close look…
This week’s cover story, “A Sporting Chance,” traces the rise of the Niyakko Rush, a grassroots youth soccer club made up primarily of refugees living in a single apartment house in Aurora. Many of the players have come from countries ravaged by political and military upheaval, including Myanmar, Somalia and…
Does a new Colorado law invite voting fraud by allowing pretty much anyone the ability to print out legal ballots from home computers? That was the argument made by Fox News’ Megyn Kelly this week in a video on view below. Only problem: It’s not true — and the person…
Like a lot of newcomers, Jason Hicks was a bit flummoxed by his first visit to the Shadow Tree apartments last year. The complex, just a short stroll off East Colfax in Aurora, is home to a growing number of refugee families, relocated from places like Nepal and Burma and…
Nineteen-year-old Jaime Leon Rivas, whose immigration case we wrote about this past spring, is back in the custody of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His crime? Going to visit his older brother at the GEO detention facility in Aurora, which houses undocumented immigrants detained by ICE. Although Leon Rivas was…
Earlier this week, Lakewood became the first Colorado city to pass an ordinance aimed at increasing condo construction, which has slowed to a near-halt in the metro area as builders back off for fear of getting sued for construction defects. The ordinance makes it more difficult for homeowners’ associations to…
Most people don’t associate Deadspin with incisive political coverage, and there’s a reason for that. The enjoyably snarky sports website published a piece accusing Colorado senatorial candidate Cory Gardner of lying about having played high school football, only to have this dubious scoop explode when Gardner was able to prove…
Update below: Doubtless there were many reasons behind a federal jury’s decision on Tuesday to stick it to the City of Denver over the 2010 death of Marvin Booker in the downtown jail, handing out a staggering $4.65 million in punitive and compensatory damages to the victim’s family. The video…
It’s politics as usual these days between Democratic Governor John “How many apologies do you want” Hickenlooper and Republican challenger Bob “47 percent of all Americans pay no federal income tax” Beauprez. The polls are tight, the money is flowing and rhetoric is heating up. And while both of these…
Is Denver Nuggets super-mascot Rocky a Republican? Signs point to “yes.” On Monday, @ColoGOP tweeted a photo of Rocky at an event for the Grand Old Party. Only problem: Ken Solomon, the man inside the Rocky suit, didn’t get an okay from his bosses about the gig — and afterward,…
A highly successful parole program that helped inmates serving decades-long sentences transition back to society — and had the potential to save the Colorado Department of Corrections millions of dollars each year in reduced housing and medical care costs for geriatric prisoners — has been scuttled without adequate explanation, say…
If you were wondering why immigration reform has been so difficult to achieve, the response to a recent story on CBS4 should quell your questions. The story, about a snafu that resulted in 524 non-citizens, “including some illegal immigrants,” receiving improperly marked drivers licenses has resulted in an explosion of…
Given that Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace is among the area’s most vocal advocates for legal marijuana sales, it’s no surprise he’s being challenged in this November’s election by a candidate on the right — but attendees at a debate last night were likely startled by just how far to…
Between legal weed and eco-friendly businesses, Colorado’s enthusiasm for green rivals none. But break out the pink and rainbows and the state suddenly gets squeamish. Even before the word “homosexuality” was invented in the late nineteenth century (French philosopher Michel Foucault argued that it first appeared in 1870), the newly…
On Tuesday morning, Republican Attorney General John Suthers, who discusses his long, hot summer debating the same-sex marriage issue in this week’s print edition, announced his candidacy for mayor of Colorado Springs. Minutes before embarking on a water tour of Colorado, Suthers took a few minutes to speak with Westword…
Even his supporters admit that Ethan Abbott, the embattled natural farming activist who’s been feuding with county authorities on several fronts, has a bit of a temper. But Abbott, 38, who was sentenced yesterday to ninety days in jail and eighteen months of probation in Weld County Court over a…
In June 2013, a month after Governor John Hickenlooper granted Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap a reprieve from execution but didn’t commute his sentence, a poll showed that Colorado voters disagreed with his decision by a three-to-one margin. Since then, the furor has faded — but the issue is…
This week’s cover story traces the dramatic shift in direction of the Colorado Department of Corrections since the 2013 murder of its chief, Tom Clements, by Evan Ebel, a violent parolee who’d just spent six years in solitary confinement. The death of the reform-minded Clements had a profound impact on…
The former chief financial officer for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office is accusing Secretary Scott Gessler of harassing her, retaliating against her and eventually demoting her after she “began to push back on the financial mismanagement” she reportedly saw in the office. Heather Lizotte took issue with Gessler’s use…
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni was back in Colorado last week, eating (and tweeting) at Acorn, attending a book signing for Helen Thorpe’s Soldier Girls (which not only earned a good review in the Times, but a rave in People, of all places) and, it turns out, researching this…
For 35 days this summer, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall made Colorado history when her office issued more than 200 same-sex marriage licenses. In doing so, she defied Colorado Attorney General John Suthers’s threats of legal action. Late last month, after the Colorado Supreme Court issued a stay…
