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No Signatures, No Recall: Aurora DA Stays in Office
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kdvr.com, Approved, Local

No Signatures, No Recall: Aurora DA Stays in Office

By Heather Willard | KDVR Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — An effort to recall a Colorado district attorney whose office prosecuted an attempted kidnapping case at an elementary school that ended with the suspect walking free due to competency issues has failed. The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office and 18th Judicial District Attorney Amy Padden both confirmed that as of Tuesday night’s deadline, no signatures on the petition to recall Padden from office had been turned in. The petition needed 75,875 registered Arapahoe County voters to trigger the recall election, Padden said. In July, Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky announced she was launching a campaign to try and remove Padden from office after registered sex offender Carmen Galligan walked free. Galligan was charged in con...
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Denver Firms Charged With Selling Chinese Forklifts as “Made in USA”
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kdvr.com, Approved, Local

Denver Firms Charged With Selling Chinese Forklifts as “Made in USA”

By Heather Willard | KDVR Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — Two Denver-area companies and three of the businesses’ top executives are facing federal charges for allegedly defrauding the government on sales of forklifts and trying to dodge tariffs on equipment imported to the U.S. According to a federal grand jury indictment and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs, the two companies involved were Endless Sales Inc. and Octane Forklifts, Inc., which both appear to have addresses on Lima Street in Denver. The indictment alleges that current company executives Brian Firkins and Jeffrey Blasdel, as well as former executive J.R. Antczak, conspired to import forklifts from China and then conceal the trucks’ foreign origin. Once disguised, the group would sell the fork...
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“They don’t care”: Unleashed podcast spotlights Durango parents’ loss of trust
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

“They don’t care”: Unleashed podcast spotlights Durango parents’ loss of trust

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Hunter Opilla didn’t expect to speak at a school board meeting when his family moved to Durango two years ago. But after learning about the district’s gender bathroom policy—and the board’s decision to reverse a superintendent directive—he says he felt he had no choice. “Just blank stares,” Opilla recalled on a recent episode of Heidi Ganahl’s Unleashed podcast. “The board never responded to my emails.” Ganahl’s latest podcast brings together a concerned father and a charter school founder to unpack what they call a pattern of political overreach and parental exclusion in Durango Schools. The conversation echoes issues previously covered by Rocky Mountain Voice in its Dirty Dozen series and recent reporting on board transparency and trust. Th...
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Beyond the rhetoric: Schools, unions, and the battle for objective truth in education
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Beyond the rhetoric: Schools, unions, and the battle for objective truth in education

By Laureen Boll | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In Part One, Laureen Boll examined how literacy challenges, COVID-era policies, and parental authority define Colorado’s education debate. In this second installment, she shifts focus to the role of schools, the influence of teachers’ unions, and the clash over objective truth — issues she argues will shape the outcome of this November’s school board elections. The Role of Schools DCSD recently voted in favor of requiring parental consent, or “opt-in,” for students to participate in the upcoming Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, also known as HKCS. HKCS is an anonymous survey that is offered to all school districts in the state every-other-year, and much of the information that’s collected from middle and high school students is...
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Denver Schools Eye Another Bond Despite $975 Million Passed By Voters in 2024
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Denver Schools Eye Another Bond Despite $975 Million Passed By Voters in 2024

By Nico Brambila | The Denver Gazette Denver Public Schools officials are already talking about the next borrowing after Denver voters just approved a nearly $1 billion bond 11 months ago. As previously reported by The Denver Gazette, DPS has grown increasingly dependent on voter-approved borrowing to fund the district’s basic needs. Over the past three decades, voters have approved billions in bond measures and mill levy overrides. During the board of education’s finance and audit committee meeting Monday, a finance official discussed “refunding” $67 million in bonds to “save” Denver taxpayers money. “It allows for the opportunity to create capacity for a future bond election without the district needing to increase the amount of money that we are paying in debt service and...
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Colorado Hit With $50,000 Fine After Anti-LDS Chants
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kdvr.com, Approved, Local

Colorado Hit With $50,000 Fine After Anti-LDS Chants

By Spencer Kristensen | KDVR Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — The University of Colorado Boulder was fined by the Big 12 Division on Tuesday after reports surfaced of inappropriate chants by CU students during the football game against BYU at Folsom Field on Saturday. CU faces a public reprimand and $50,000 fine. “In accordance with the Big 12 Conference Principles and Standards of Sportsmanship, the Conference has issued the University of Colorado a public reprimand and $50,000 fine for the inappropriate chants that occurred during Saturday’s football game against BYU.” Alongside the announcement of the fine, the Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark made a statement: “Hateful and discriminatory language has no home in the Big 12 Conference. While we appreciate Colorado apologizing for th...
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RTD requests additional $1.6 billion in funding for rail expansion project
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Fox31, Approved, Local

RTD requests additional $1.6 billion in funding for rail expansion project

BY Jared Dean | FOX 31 NEWS DENVER (KDVR) — Over 20 years ago, voters approved RTD’s expansion program, the largest in the nation. 113 miles of both commuter and light rail systems, 78 rail transit stations, and 18 miles of rapid bus transit were set to hit the metro. “We have a lot of challenges in terms of completing the program in a shorter period of time. And I know everybody’s anxious about it, but we really do need other sources of revenue in order for us to kind of be able to complete it in a reasonable amount of time,” senior manager for transit-oriented communities for RTD Bill Sirois said. Major hits to the economy and a massive decline in ridership have made funding the project nearly impossible. RTD is now asking for $1.6 billion to get the project done by 20...
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Castle tow truck driver receives 16 year prison sentence for auto theft scheme
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DENVER7, Approved, Local

Castle tow truck driver receives 16 year prison sentence for auto theft scheme

By Sydney Isenberg | DENVER 7 The 23rd Judicial DA's Office confirmed to Denver7 that sexual exploitation of a child/possession of child sexual abuse material charges against Brian Chacon were dropped as part of a plea deal. DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — A Castle Rock tow truck driver was sentenced to 16 years in prison for orchestrating an auto theft scheme that spanned across the Denver metro area. The Douglas County Sheriff's Office said its investigation began in December 2023 after a detective with the Auto Theft Unit was assigned a stolen vehicle case. The detective later learned that the case may be related to several incidents involving Eagle Wing Towing. According to the 23rd Judicial District Attorney's Office, between April 2023 and February 2024, Brian Chacon, 34, owner o...
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Denver’s Spending Grew 60% in a Decade, But Revenues and Population Lagged Far Behind
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Denver’s Spending Grew 60% in a Decade, But Revenues and Population Lagged Far Behind

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Denver’s budget has grown sharply over the past ten years, far faster than its population and its ability to bring in tax dollars. A new analysis from the Common Sense Institute shows inflation-adjusted spending per resident rose about 60 percent since 2015. During that period, revenues grew more slowly, at about 40 percent, while the city’s population increased by less than 7 percent. The mismatch is why Denver now faces a projected $250 million gap over the next two years, even as officials push a $950 million bond proposal for housing, roads, and other projects. Spending Priorities Have Shifted Where the money goes has changed dramatically. Construction and infrastructure costs have ballooned, climbing more than elev...
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