Today, approximately a hundred advocates of women’s health took to the Capitol as part of Pro-Choice Lobby Day. The event, held in Denver annually for more than a decade, brought the Protect Families Protect Choice Coalition together with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains to train supporters as citizen advocates…
After months of waiting and sifting through discovery, Mercer Lewis, 21, became the first Occupy Denver activist to take his case in front of a jury yesterday. After the trial, Lewis, who was found not guilty on the charge of obstructing a street or passageway, had a great deal to…
Today is the last in a seven-day “surge” being conducted in Aurora by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Their supposed target? Deportable aliens who have been arrested, or those issued court summonses who are fugitives or who have been previously deported or convicted of crimes. It’s the summonses part that’s causing…
Nearly twenty years after Denver’s much-hyped “Summer of Violence” triggered a harsher approach to juvenile offenders statewide, lawmakers are wrestling with two reform bills — and a new report contends that Colorado’s system for moving juvenile cases into adult court isn’t working and doesn’t provide adequate protection for teen defendants…
The Thunderdome, the original kitchen and symbol of Occupy Denver, has launched no shortage of projects since a frequent police presence encouraged its members to distance themselves from the organization in November. Along with a weekly radio show and the ongoing construction of three mobile food carts, the Thunderdome has…
In a 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, African-Americans and other minority citizens secured the right to vote. To honor their efforts, Colorado Democratic lawmakers, faith leaders and march veterans are urging citizens to utilize their voting rights by participating in tonight’s Democratic Caucus. But they are…
Visitors to Occupy Denver’s website will notice that the local chapter of the national movement has increased its online persona in recent months. Accompanying its newly redesigned site is a push for more extensive coverage of the group’s events that includes more frequent actions and educational opportunities, as well as…
Update: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revised an earlier statement that ICE is screening traffic summonses in Aurora to identify undocumented immigrants who are fugitives, have been previously deported or have been convicted of crimes. The revised statement, sent two hours after the original, says ICE is screening court summonses,…
The 16th Street Mall was temporarily shut down Wednesday, when Occupy Denver staged a march against the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC is a conservative nonprofit that favors large corporations, demonstrators said, and its membership includes over 2,000 state legislators. The protest under the banner of “Shut Down the Corporations”…
It sits on the couch of his Washington, D.C. apartment: A black bag, still filled with supplies that could help President Barack Obama in a pinch: Tide stain remover, newspapers, papers, medicine. And even though thirty-year-old Reggie Love is Obama’s former “body man,” not his current minder, he could be…
Local immigrant advocates aren’t exactly elated at the news that the Obama administration plans to phase out a controversial program that allows local law enforcement to act as immigration officers. “At the end of the day, there’s another elephant in the room,” says Justin Valas, of the Colorado Immigrant Rights…
In January 2008, the night before the presidential election, Gilbert Ortiz received his first strange phone call. The following morning, the Pueblo county clerk and recorder would receive thousands repeating the report, but his relative caught him first. She asked why he had changed her polling location the night before…
Update: In the wake of Saturday’s Fuck the Police march (see photos below), assorted media outlets, including the Denver Post, shared reports that urine-filled balloons had been hurled at the event, which resulted in five arrests. But Denver Police spokesman Lieutenant Matt Murray, who was on the scene, says he…
Editor’s note: This is the latest profile in Kelsey Whipple’s ongoing series highlighting local political activists. Denver’s Road Home executive director Bennie Milliner’s career in service began the day he saw Calvin step out of his brand new, canary-yellow Chevy Impala. Emerging in an expertly starched uniform, Calvin struck a…
Somewhere Byron “Whizzer” White is smiling. The late, great University of Colorado football star and U.S. Supreme Court Justice never cared much for his colleagues’ bleeding-heart Miranda decision back in 1966, which required that suspects in custody must be advised of their rights before being interrogated. And this week, the…
Update: The decision to stage a “Fuck the Police” rally is controversial even for the Occupy Denver members who support Saturday’s event — get details below. Still, occupier Tim Holland explains why the organization as a whole hasn’t signed on: While Occupy Denver (by which he means the entire group…
Gay advocacy group One Colorado has started an online petition to fight against what it calls “scare tactics” by Catholic Charities, whose reps testified at the Capitol last week that if lawmakers legalize civil unions, it may stop providing adoption and foster care services. Why? Because civil unions could lead…
Before she committed the lessons to the page, state senator Morgan Carroll had delivered hundreds of workshops and seminars on citizen advocacy. Since her career in politics began, the forty-year-old Democrat continues to be overwhelmed by the disconnect between paid lobbyists and the average citizen. So when she finally did…
The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that political organizations dubbed 527s can spend unlimited funds for state candidates as long as the ads they’re financing don’t include so-called “magic words” such as “vote for” or “defeat.” The decision is a disappointment for Colorado Ethics Watch, which began pressing the case…
In the almost five months that Occupy Denver has maintained a presence downtown, the group has experienced more than 100 arrests. Add to this mix upwards of seventy lawyers, hundreds of court dates and an attempt at a federal injunction, and the results become tough to track. Yesterday, Westword caught…
If Colorado lawmakers pass a bill to legalize civil unions, the state could see a bump in its bank account — $4.8 million in the first three years, according to a report by the California-based sexual orientation think tank The Williams Institute. That money would come from a combination of…
The Boulder City Council is considering a proposal to reduce penalties for sixty minor legal violations such as littering and throwing rocks. Under ordinance 7831, first and second time offenders would no longer face jail time, though their rights to a trial by jury would be changed to a single…
