On April 20, CNN broadcast a scathing and practically fact-free assault on the marijuana industry in these parts under the headline “Colorado Governor Won’t Rule Out Banning Marijuana Again. Here’s Why.” The governor’s office suggests that the results were misleading and confirms that two corrections were requested in regard to the enormously embarrassing results. One was made, the other wasn’t.
The soon-to-start Central 70 plan isn’t the only major construction project along the urban corridor that’s expected to break ground within months. The approximately $330 million undertaking the Colorado Department of Transportation has dubbed the North I-25 project will add express lanes in either direction, as well as replace bridges and more from Johnstown to Fort Collins, and it’s not expected to be completed until 2021. Additionally, the department will be laying the groundwork for future expansion that may not take place until 2075, more than half a century from now.
A new lawsuit prompted by the fatal police shooting of Dion Damon two years ago this month deals with more than the facts of the tragic case. The document, on view below, also maintains that the incident exemplifies a pattern and practice of the Denver Police Department when it comes to excessive force and attempts to bolster its argument via a select history of ten controversial DPD shootings, many of which resulted in huge settlements funded by local taxpayers.
Her full name was Yevaeh Patrick-Moon, and she was nine when she was found unresponsive in the pool at Colorado Springs’ Hotel Elegante on December 16 of last year. What happened to Yevaeh involves a potential crime. Last month, Lynthia Washington, the grandmother of two young girls who accompanied Yevaeh to the hotel, was arrested and subsequently charged with child abuse — negligently causing death by the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office. She was supposed to be supervising the children at the pool but was allegedly nowhere to be found when Yevaeh sank beneath the waters for the final time.
What are the most and least expensive places to rent in Denver right now, no matter what size apartment you’d like? Find the answers here.
An investigation has found that Nick Dawkins, who resigned last month as principal of Manual High School, violated Denver Public Schools policies about discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
A revision of Castle Rock’s animal code that removes its pit-bull ban passed on first reading on April 17.
Attorney Brian Vicente sees reason for optimism about MMJ.
This Colorado organization has become a national model for preventing school-related cataclysms of all sorts.
Marijuana is legal in Colorado for both medical and recreational purposes according to the state’s constitution.
Here’s more evidence that nothing on the Internet ever dies: A spoof story about McDonald’s restaurants in Colorado transforming their play areas into marijuana smoking lounges, which first fooled gullible web surfers in October 2015, has gone viral again, just in time for 4/20.
The Eligibility Colorado Road and Community Safety Act now moves to the governor’s desk.
Five people, including the principal who retired after the cheerleading splits scandal, and four current administrators, have been charged.
Denver City Council president Albus Brooks, who had surgery for cancer in 2016, has revealed the recurrence of the disease. Surgery to remove a newly discovered tumor has been scheduled for the first week of May.
Two leading civil-rights law firms have joined forces to sue the City and County of Denver and Denver police officer Jeffrey Motz in regard to the fatal shooting of Dion Damon, who was gunned down in broad daylight near the Denver Art Museum two years ago this month. The lawsuit alleges that Motz’s “grossly excessive” killing of Damon, a bank robbery suspect who was unarmed at the the time of the incident, was followed by an elaborate Denver Police Department cover-up, and adds that the officer had previously slain two people while on the job yet was only disciplined on a separate occasion when he didn’t squeeze his trigger.
One of the most frequent questions we at Westword hear is: “Where do my marijuana tax dollars go?” Now, a new animated video created by Marijuana Industry Group, whose executive director, Kristi Kelly, has become the face of the cannabis business in Colorado, gets closer to the truth of the matter than anything has in a long, long time. See it here.
In recent weeks, stories about sexual harassment allegations aimed at Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, as well as state legislators Randy Baumgardner (who dodged expulsion from the general assembly) and Steve Lebsock (who didn’t), show that even powerful figures aren’t immune from criticism over improper behavior. And that’s proving to be the case with offenders who are no longer among the living, too. Witness the decision by Colorado College to rescind an honorary degree bestowed more than a century ago on former school president William Slocum, and the stripping of his name from a campus building. These moves were made because of what CC’s board of trustees describe as “overwhelming and uncontroverted evidence that Slocum engaged in instances of sexual misconduct and egregious sexual assault while he was president of the college.”
Seven Colorado cities currently prohibit pit bulls, with such regulations resulting in thousands of dogs being euthanized in Denver alone. But the number of bans could be reduced by one within weeks. Tonight, Castle Rock’s town council will hear the first reading of a new animal ordinance that repeals breed-specific legislation, and if it moves to the next stage, as expected, it could become law as soon as next month. Advocate Jen Dudley hopes the new rules serve as a template for repealing and replacing the bans in Denver and beyond.
A new analysis of rent growth in the United States reveals that prices in Denver went up 48.3 percent from 2010 through the end of last year. The increase is the fourth highest in the United States during that period, behind only three cities in California’s Bay Area.
No one was surprised when former state treasurer Cary Kennedy and Representative Jared Polis landed spots on the ballot as gubernatorial candidates via April 14’s Colorado Democratic Party state assembly, the complete results of which are on view below. But the Colorado Republican Party state assembly, held on the same day, contained a stunner. Former Parker mayor Greg Lopez, who few political observers took seriously, knocked state attorney general Cynthia Coffman out of the guv sweepstakes based largely on the power of a single speech.
Ever since the Denver Post announced that it would be laying off thirty employees, or approximately one-third of its newsroom staff, readers have worried about the venerable broadsheet disappearing entirely. And while such a fate doesn’t seem imminent, particularly given the good will generated by the paper’s bold editorial attack on its “vulture” hedge fund owner, Alden Global Capital, earlier this month, the difficulty of keeping a print newspaper alive in the 21st century is very real, as illustrated by the following list of publications that have gone bust since the dawn of the millennium.
Although “Ditch the Ditch” protesters haven’t given up on stopping the sprawling and controversial Central 70 project, the Colorado Department of Transportation is moving full steam ahead, with a goal of getting underway in earnest this summer. To help prepare metro-area drivers in general, and especially commuters who travel along Interstate 70 east of I-25 on a daily basis, for what CDOT insists will be coming soon, we reached out to Rebecca White, Central 70’s communications director, who offers a preview of a process that’s expected to take well into the next decade to complete.
