Officials from Charlotte, North Carolina — the host of the 2012 Democratic National Convention — recently came to Denver to learn from our city’s experience hosting the 2008 DNC. What was Charlotte Chamber of Commerce President Bob Morgan’s take-away after meeting with Denver’s civic leaders? The DNC will bring economic…
Update below: Earlier this week, SB 85, a bill that would establish a so-called “johns school” for people who solicit prostitutes, sailed through the Senate judiciary committee. Read it below. But the overseers of Colorado’s Sex Workers Outreach Project branch see the measure as ineffective and contradictory of current laws…
Update below: Today, in all likelihood, SB 172, intended to legalize civil unions in Colorado, will be okayed by the state senate, following debate yesterday that warmed the heart of its sponsor, Senator Pat Steadman. Next, however, the bill must be approved by the Republican-controlled House, where he thinks it…
News that Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers is paying bonuses to prosecutors who achieve a certain percentage of felony convictions at trial may be raising eyebrows among other DAs, but it’s hardly a shocker to anyone who’s followed Chambers’ other efforts to turn her office into a conviction machine…
The e-mails contained an ugly ultimatum: Annette Story had to fork over $1,500 or lose contact with her son. Kidnapping? Extortion? No, just another child/family investigator (CFI) demanding an increase in his retainer. Under current Colorado law, Story had no recourse against such an outrageous threat, but a new bill…
Former Denver Manager of Safety Fidel “Butch” Montoya is switching his endorsement in the upcoming mayoral election to James Mejia. In a strongly-worded letter e-mailed to friends Monday evening, Montoya writes that he originally intended to endorse former state senator Chris Romer, but has become “very disenchanted” with his “lack…
The morning after ten Denver mayoral candidates qualified for the ballot, Marcus Giavanni, whose petition was deemed “insufficient,” said he would file a complaint about his exclusion — and he’s done just that. The document, on view below, targets Denver clerk and recorder Stephanie O’Malley and argues that the rejection…
Lynn Bartels’s political reporting is a highlight of the Denver Post, in part because of the lively wit she often brings to her articles. And this quality is in even greater abundance on her Twitter feed, where she makes the state legislature seem like a fun and interesting place to…
Charley Garcia officially becomes Denver’s newest Manager of Safety today — the fourth person to hold the position in the last year. The first day on the job for Garcia, a former head of Denver’s Public Defender office, follows news that Police Chief Gerald Whitman has handed over his recommendation…
Wild horses get injured and sometimes die in federal roundups, and “excess” horses sent to slaughterhouses endure much harsh treatment along the way. But not everyone wants to hear about that — not even horse people, as one animal welfare group found out this weekend, when Rocky Mountain Horse Expo…
Paul Noel Fiorino was among six mayoral hopefuls who didn’t collect enough signatures to qualify for the ballot — although a whopping ten others managed to do so. But unlike Marcus Giavanni, Fiorino isn’t contesting this decision. Instead, he plans to run as a write-in, even as he offers the…
Battle: Los Angeles topped the weekend box office, bringing in an estimated $36 million. But will it also improve Jeff Peckman’s chances of becoming Denver’s mayor? He hopes so. Peckman appears in numerous spots hyping the alien-invasion flick, including a featurette with assorted experts talking about extraterrestrial life of the…
The Denver mayoral race is finally starting to see some heat. Michael Hancock issued a press release Friday that called out contender Chris Romer for hiring an out-of-state political research firm to dig up information on other candidates — a well-known campaign tactic known as “opposition research.”…
Denver’s Rocky Mountain Rollergirls, the best roller derby team in the world, recently accomplished another feat: the passage of Joint Senate Resolution 11-021 by the Colorado legislature. The purpose of the resolution? To acknowledge the “leadership, development and empowerment of women that the sport of women’s flat track roller derby…
And then there were ten — Denver mayoral candidates approved to be on the ballot, that is. Doug Linkhart, the Teapot Party fave, wound up in the coveted first slot. And at least one of the hopefuls left behind plans to contest his exclusion…
Former Senator Tim Wirth, a formidable opponent in the 1980s of the U.S. Army’s big plans for its training site in southeastern Colorado, views possible expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site as possibly a greater threat to the area’s environment and economy today than it was then. Now the…
The race for the District 1 City Council seat in Northwest Denver has gone from snoozer to scramble. Paula Sandoval’s March 2 announcement that she wouldn’t seek reelection gave hopefuls just eight days to gather the 100 signatures needed to get on the ballot…
Are gays and porn really two of the biggest issues in the upcoming Colorado Springs municipal elections? According to Focus on the Family, they are. As noted by the Colorado Springs Gazette, FOTF has assembled a candidate survey in advance of the April 5 vote — and three of its…
Matt Arnold, the man behind Clear the Bench, which aimed to throw the bums off the Colorado Supreme Court, has been on a losing streak. Colorado Ethics Watch came out on top in a dispute over whether Clear the Bench should have filed as an issues committee (although CEW was…
Thus far, the campaign to become Denver’s next mayor is less a race than a scrum. The city’s website lists seven candidates whose petitions have been deemed “sufficient,” meaning that they featured at least 300 valid signatures: Carol Boigon, Michael Hancock, Doug Linkhart, Danny Lopez, James Mejia, Chris Romer and…
In the dozen years since the Columbine shootings, school officials have become hypervigilant about potential troublemakers in their midst — so hyper, in fact, that state lawmakers are now seeking a formal review of school disciplinary procedures to determine if principals are too quick to involve police and the juvenile…
With John Hickenlooper serving as Colorado’s governor, we know Denver will have a new mayor this year, and the race is wide open. To introduce you to the players, we’re offering profiles of official candidates. Next up: Mark Gruber. “It’s very difficult to get good government when you’re dealing with…
