denvergazette.com

DPS Superintendent Marrero delayed closure list before bond vote—used September data anyway

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Last year, when the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education established guardrails for campus closures, Superintendent Alex Marrero requested a one-time extension before releasing his closure list, citing the need for the October Count enrollment data for his team to complete the analysis.

“I don’t believe that we’re going to have an accurate count no earlier than October,” Marrero told the board during the Aug. 15 meeting, in which he requested additional time.

District documents suggested otherwise — specifically, that the district obtained enrollment numbers in September. In public documents, the September data was cited as justification for the closure list.

DPS Superintendent Marrero delayed closure list before bond vote—used September data anyway Read More »

Colorado Republicans: Effort to save taxpayers money ‘shredded’ by Democrats this session

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Republican lawmakers, who are in the minority at the state Capitol, said they saw little success in their campaign to save residents money this year, as Democrats “shredded” that goal.

At the beginning of the session, Republicans unveiled a series of measures that, they insisted, would save the average Colorado family $4,500 each year.

“We had hopes to make life more affordable,” said Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen of Monument.

Colorado Republicans: Effort to save taxpayers money ‘shredded’ by Democrats this session Read More »

Gazette editorial board: Veto HB 25-1147 to stop the soft-on-crime overreach

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Our state was slammed by a crime wave a few years ago — aided and abetted by a notoriously offender- friendly, victims-be-damned Legislature — leaving it to hard-hit local governments to figure out how to respond.

With state lawmakers abandoning the crime fight on every front — hard drugs, auto theft, illegal immigration, you name it — a number of Colorado cities, commendably, took the reins.

Gazette editorial board: Veto HB 25-1147 to stop the soft-on-crime overreach Read More »

Brauchler: SB25-276 is lawmakers’ latest mockery of immigration enforcement

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SB 25-276 is a Democrat-only sponsored bill that attacks the rule of law and will make Colorado less safe and less just.

It contains a predictably steep, yet unquantified, unfunded mandate to counties, who fund the 23 district attorneys’ offices across Colorado. SB 276 expands the opportunity for “noncitizen defendants” to challenge every guilty plea they have entered to every class of misdemeanor, petty offense, and even municipal charges,” at any time following the entry of a guilty plea.” There is no time limitation for this challenge.

Brauchler: SB25-276 is lawmakers’ latest mockery of immigration enforcement Read More »

Writing to remember and reconcile: Colorado Springs Rescue Mission marks Mother’s Day with purpose

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Unspoken words flowed from head to heart to paper Thursday, with messages that are being sent from Colorado Springs to communities across the nation, or from earth to heaven.

As Mother’s Day approaches, homeless people staying at the city’s largest emergency shelter and support campus wrote greeting cards with personal sentiments expressing thanksgiving, fond memories, forgiveness, regret, repentance and above all, their love to the women who gave them life.

Writing to remember and reconcile: Colorado Springs Rescue Mission marks Mother’s Day with purpose Read More »

18 flagged for deportation after Colorado Springs nightclub raid, 86 remain in ICE custody

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A spokesperson with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed that 18 people who were taken into custody on April 27 as part of a major raid on an unlicensed Colorado Springs nightclub had previously been ordered to be deported.

According to the ICE spokesperson Thursday, 18 of the 104 individuals detained in the raid were “subject to a final order of removal.”

18 flagged for deportation after Colorado Springs nightclub raid, 86 remain in ICE custody Read More »

Colorado Senate rejects judicial discipline appointee over misconduct cover-up ties, approves another

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The Colorado state Senate on Wednesday rejected the reappointment of the chairwoman to the state panel that handles judicial discipline but narrowly kept its vice-chair.

Needing 18 votes to confirm their reappointments to the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, chairwoman Mindy Sooter came up two votes shy (19-16 against), while Jim Carpenter was approved by the same margin.

The Senate has a firm 21-14 Democratic majority.

The decision to drop Sooter from the 10-member commission comes days after a Senate committee made the rare choice to refuse confirming either gubernatorial appointee. Unlike proposed legislation that can die in a committee in either house of the General Assembly, appointments by the governor, which require approval from the full Senate, are voted on separately regardless of a committee’s recommendation, though the latter carries weight.

Colorado Senate rejects judicial discipline appointee over misconduct cover-up ties, approves another Read More »

Colorado Senate committee rejects judicial watchdog picks over misconduct concerns

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In a bipartisan rebuke of how a years-long scandal has been handled, a Colorado Senate committee on Monday made the rare move of not approving the gubernatorial reappointment of the top two members of the state’s Commission on Judicial Discipline.

Just months after voters statewide overwhelmingly chose to change how Colorado disciplines judges, the state Senate Judiciary Committee voted — 4-3, with two Democrats joining the panel’s two lone Republicans — to offer an unfavorable recommendation to the full Senate on the reappointment of Mindy Sooter and Jim Carpenter, the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the 10-member commission.

Colorado Senate committee rejects judicial watchdog picks over misconduct concerns Read More »