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Appeals Court Weighs Parental Rights Case Against Jeffco Schools
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Approved, Complete Colorado, Local

Appeals Court Weighs Parental Rights Case Against Jeffco Schools

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month heard oral arguments in a lawsuit brought against Jefferson County Public Schools for rooming an 11-year-old girl in the same bed as a biological boy during an overnight trip. Plaintiffs’ lawyers told the court that school leaders told the girl to lie to her parents about the reasoning behind her distress while staying with the transgender student. As previously reported by Complete Colorado, the daughter of Joe and Serena Wailes went on a school trip to Philadelphia and Washing D.C. upon finishing the fifth grade. While on the trip, she was assigned the same room and bed as a biological boy who identified as a female. School officials had assured parents that boys and girls would be ...
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Colorado Springs Braces For Space Force Growth And Infrastructure Demands
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Approved, Local, The Gazette

Colorado Springs Braces For Space Force Growth And Infrastructure Demands

By Mary Shinn | The Gazette As the Space Force prepares to double in size over the next five years, Peterson Space Force Base will need additional space and people to support the growth. The intense period of expansion is expected even as Space Command headquarters relocates to Huntsville, Ala., because it is a small piece of all the space operations in town. Peterson Space Force Base and Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station employ about 8,200 active-duty troops, civilians and contractors and have a combined payroll of $837 million, according to a Tuesday presentation by Col. Kenneth Klock, commander of the Space Base Delta 1. The combined economic impact of the two bases is about $2.6 billion, per the report. The entire Space Force employs about 10,000 people in specialized r...
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Colorado Nonprofit Steps In As Immigrants Exit Aurora Detention Facility
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Approved, Local, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Nonprofit Steps In As Immigrants Exit Aurora Detention Facility

By Jennifer Brown | Colorado Sun Casa de Paz gives people a warm meal, a suitcase, a phone charger and a way home, no matter how far that may be. Sitting on a couch in a one-story house near the immigration detention center in Aurora on a recent rainy weekday, J.R.V. began to retether himself to the life he was ripped from nearly five months ago. At his feet, tan work boots were in a plastic bag with his name written in Sharpie. He had last worn them on a Saturday morning in December when a sheriff’s deputy arrested him as he was driving to a construction site in Florida. They were a reminder of how quickly life changed. J.R.V., 40, spent about three days at the county jail followed by 12 at Alligator Alcatraz, the infamous, new immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades,...
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Denver Teacher Dismissed After Students Asked To Act Out Kissing Scenes
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Approved, Local, The Denver Gazette

Denver Teacher Dismissed After Students Asked To Act Out Kissing Scenes

By Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette An administrative law judge has recommended the dismissal of a teacher at Northeast Early College — a high school in the Denver Public Schools district — after finding classroom activities and personal disclosures to students amounted to “incompetence and neglect of duty,” setting up a final vote by the school board. After meeting in executive session Wednesday, the DPS Board of Education unanimously voted to accept the dismissal of Jennifer Honka, a French teacher. They could have rejected the April 30 decision by Judge Keith J. Kirchubel. The board’s action came without public discussion. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE DENVER GAZETTE
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Jeffco student barred from reading pro-life poem after school calls it “too politically charged”
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Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Jeffco student barred from reading pro-life poem after school calls it “too politically charged”

By Kelly Notarfrancesco | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Jeffco School District values maintaining schools where “…all students…feel that their voices and perspectives are valued." Yet one 13-year-old 7th grade honors student said she does not feel respected at school, after school officials told her she is not allowed to participate in her class poetry presentation because her submission is “too offensive” and “too politically charged.” The Drake Middle School 7th grader, whose name is being withheld as she is a minor, submitted a poem titled, “A life is a life, no matter how small,” about choosing life over abortion.  Shortly after submitting her poem Monday, the student was approached by her 7th grade Honors English Language Arts teacher Laura Wolf and told she would...
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Colorado Churches Growing Again Driven By Younger Generations
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Approved, Local, The Denver Gazette

Colorado Churches Growing Again Driven By Younger Generations

By Mark Samuelson | The Denver Gazette If churchgoing ever hit a low point in American history, it would have been exactly six years ago, just as the year 2020 arrived. Late the previous year, a widely publicized Pew Research study had documented an ongoing erosion of Christianity and of general religious identity in the U.S. The tally of Americans who identified as Christian, the research said, had fallen to 65% — down 12 points over a single decade. Moreover, those identifying as atheist, agnostic or as “nones” had climbed to 26%. The unconformity widened further by age groups, older to younger. Then COVID-19 arrived, with public health orders by governments effectively closing down places of worship, along with schools, businesses and other public buildings. In Colorado, ...
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Homelessness Rises In El Paso And Teller Counties As Statewide Numbers Fall
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Approved, Axios, Local

Homelessness Rises In El Paso And Teller Counties As Statewide Numbers Fall

By Glenn Wallace | Axios Homelessness in El Paso and Teller counties rose in 2025, even as statewide numbers declined slightly, according to a statewide report released Monday. Why it matters: The increase is adding strain to local shelters and housing programs even as much of Colorado saw modest improvement. Driving the news: Colorado's State of Homelessness Report counted 7,078 people experiencing homelessness in the Pikes Peak region in 2025, up from 6,787 the year before. Local service providers saw demand jump nearly 19% year over year, helping 16,245 people in 2025. Meanwhile, homelessness declined slightly in Denver, northern Colorado and statewide overall. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT AXIOS
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Southwest Colorado’s voice has gone unheard in Denver. Naomi Riess is running to change it.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Southwest Colorado’s voice has gone unheard in Denver. Naomi Riess is running to change it.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice The men's room door was locked. The man inside wasn't responding. Naomi Riess's daughter-in-law — who works for the sheriff at the jail — had already recognized him when he walked in. She'd been watching. She called 911 and tried to find the key. Nobody knew where it was. When police arrived, they broke the door down and found him ODing on the floor inside a fentanyl cloud. The first two officers through both had to be Narcanned — one passed out immediately. Her daughter-in-law was third in line. She didn't need Narcan but went to the hospital for a full body detox of her clothing and her body. She had no voice for four days. The man was taken to the hospital and released. It was the weekend and police couldn't reach a...
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JeffCo Parents Demand Answers After Hidden School Safety Audit Surfaces
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Colorado Public Radio, Approved, Local

JeffCo Parents Demand Answers After Hidden School Safety Audit Surfaces

By Molly Cruse | CPR News Two weeks ago, Lindsay Datko filed a public records request for a school safety audit from JeffCo Public Schools. Datko — a parent of three children in the district and executive director of the parent advocacy group Jeffco Kids First — said she first learned about the audit through school committee meeting minutes. But when she requested the records through Colorado’s open records law, she said the district initially told her only hard copies existed and that they had been destroyed. Now, Jeffco Public Schools parents and advocates are demanding answers.  The unreleased audit was conducted by a student safety company called Gaggle. The report uncovered more than 150 “imminent threats” just weeks before the September 2025...
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Appeals Court Sides With Boulder On Homeless Camping Restrictions
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Hoodline, Approved, Local

Appeals Court Sides With Boulder On Homeless Camping Restrictions

By Leah Fraser | Hoodline Boulder can keep ticketing and jailing people for sleeping outside, at least for now. A Colorado Court of Appeals panel on Thursday upheld the city's ban on camping and sleeping on public property, turning aside a constitutional challenge that said the rules amount to cruel and unusual punishment under state law. The three-judge panel ruled that the ordinances target conduct - pitching a tent, sleeping with a blanket or otherwise sheltering outdoors - not the status of being unhoused, leaving the city's tent and blanket bans in place while advocates decide whether to take the fight to a higher court. The opinion, issued May 14, 2026, was written by Judge W. Eric Kuhn, who concluded that, "no matter how sympathetic their plight, these circumstances al...
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