The Boulder County ACLU has come out in firm opposition to a proposed ordinance that would require approval from the city manager to allow protesters to gather in city parks. Although the topic is still in the brainstorming stages and won’t merit a decision for months, its opponents fear it…
Update, 9 a.m. June 16: This event has been canceled. Original post: Although the protesters are expecting a showdown, the results could be more like a meltdown: Tomorrow, members of the Young Americans for Freedom (conservative and libertarian youth) and Denver’s South Suburban Freedom Fighters (formerly the South Suburban Young…
Today brings big news, high hopes and timid reservations about immigration. The Obama administration has announced it will halt the deportation of undocumented youth who immigrated to the country as children and don’t pose threats to national security, and will offer work permits to eligible students. The news follows years…
In the almost three months since the Colorado Progressive Coalition began a fight for Initiative 84, organizers have collected more than three dozen stories about Colorado foreclosures. In the near future, they will be part of a story map on the group’s website documenting personal horror stories while the CPC…
Editor’s note: This is the latest profile in Kelsey Whipple’s ongoing series highlighting local political activists. For anyone who’s ever seen Rushmore, Steve Fenberg’s college experience makes him sound like a much better-adjusted Max Fischer. “I started a lot of clubs and stuff,” he says modestly of his experience at…
This could get tiring. Senator Mark Udall has announced that he will head to the Senate floor every day to push the same piece of legislation — the Wind Production Tax Credit — until Congress responds and passes it. That means speech after speech after speech on the same issue,…
Update below: Will federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a presence at this weekend’s 115th annual Strawberry Days Festival in Glenwood Springs? That’s what youth-led immigrant rights group AJUA wants to know. AJUA sent a letter to ICE, explaining that the agency’s presence at last year’s fair “traumatized our community.”…
If you’ve kept abreast with the Latest Word’s Occupy Denver coverage, the following protester needs no introduction — but we’ll give one to him anyway. Through the Thunderdome, the local movement’s early anarchist kitchen, Justin “Crunchy” Gwin and its other chefs focused on the politics of food, feeding activists for…
Update: After a six-day sit-in and hunger strike, young undocumented immigrants Javier Hernandez and Veronica Gomez left their brief home at the Obama For America headquarters at 5:20 p.m. today. As the National Immigrant Youth Alliance pushes plans to spread their call for an executive order from Obama to the…
U.S. Representative Doug Lamborn is proud of himself — and he should be. After all, the Colorado Springs Republican has scaled new heights of stupidity in the halls of Congress, and that’s not an easy task. Last week, Lamborn, chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, freaked out…
When developer-turned-muckraker Mike Zinna won a modest $1,791 judgement against a former Jefferson County commissioner in 2009, after years of convoluted intrigues and litigation, his supporters hailed the decision as an important, if largely symbolic, victory for the rights of online government critics. But this week, an appeals court ruled…
Governor John Hickenlooper has signed HB-1084, a bill stiffening hit-and-run penalties that was inspired by Tim Albo, who nearly died after being struck by Brandon Mondragon in 2010. Albo’s family is thrilled by this turn of events, but their enthusiasm is tempered by concern for Tim, who’s struggling with a…
Editor’s Note: The following is a guest-post by Chuck Strouse, editor-in-chief of Westword’s sister paper, the Miami New Times. It’s video side-bar to Strouse’s piece that ran in Westword this week, “Welcome back, Jim Crow: A tradition of keeping African-Americans voters from the polls.”As I show in my column this…
From Pennsylvania to West Virginia (and Colorado), pictures of bright orange, iron-laced water pouring down streams and out of kitchen faucets have been shared by activists to demonstrate the dangers of coal mining. But one photo scheduled for display before Congress’ energy and mineral resources subcommittee was deemed “inappropriate” by…
One of the few hotly contested primary races in Colorado elections this year is the brawl between Leslie Hansen and George Brauchler over who will be the Republican candidate for district attorney in the 18th Judicial District, vying to succeed Carol Chambers as top prosecutor in one of the state’s…
Last November, we introduced you to ThanksObamacare.org, a local website aiming to transform “Obamacare” from an attack label used by opponents of the 2010 health-care law to a term of endearment. This week, the site’s released a new video, “Don’t Deny Us,” which expands on this theme as political observers…
After almost a week of delay, the Denver Police Department began enforcing the city’s new urban camping ordinance yesterday afternoon. Although the ban legally took effect May 29, officers extended the wait in order to provide more educational opportunities about the ordinance and its legal implications. The overnight effects are…
Lay Catholics and several big organizations, including the Denver-based Gill Foundation, have saved the budget of an immigrant advocacy group in Durango whose funding was yanked by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. The Catholics stripped the immigrant group, called Companeros, of $30,000 because it belongs to a coalition that…
Yesterday, the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals struck down a key provision in the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, shorthanded as DOMA. And while the ruling doesn’t directly impact Colorado, where a fight over a civil unions bill killed not once but twice was the story of the just-completed…
Today marks the announced effective date of Denver’s new urban camping ban, an ordinance that makes it illegal to camp on public or private property without permission. After months of debate, followed by a two-week implementation period, both Occupy Denver and the homeless community prepared for its first day in…
Why is presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney scheduled to make a campaign stop in the Town of Craig at 8:30 a.m. this morning? After all, the community’s population — 9,464, according to the 2010 census — makes it the sort of place most candidates fly over. The answer can…
A few years after Harold and Kumar visited White Castle — but before they escaped from Guantanamo Bay — Kumar Patel’s real-life alter ego, Kal Penn, served a two-year-stint as the associate director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement. In 2008, the House and 24 star campaigned in…
