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‘The Most Legit Dude’ in the Colorado Capitol: Senator becomes unlikely celebrity
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Approved, State, Westword

‘The Most Legit Dude’ in the Colorado Capitol: Senator becomes unlikely celebrity

By Hannah Metzger | Westword One Colorado legislator has become the subject of fan pages, a weekly holiday and an effort to replace Mayor Mike Johnston’s greeting at the Denver airport with his voice instead. As state Senator Perry Will walks through the Colorado Capitol Building on Friday, May 3, staffers stop him to ask for photos. Dozens of people roam the halls wearing bolo ties — Will’s signature look — in homage to the year's last “Perry Will Friday,” which has been celebrated every week since the legislative session began in January. Now four months in, with legislators preparing to adjourn this week, Will is a bona fide celebrity under the gold dome. “I just love it. I crave it,” Will says. "I'm not your garden-variety legislator, but I work across the ai...
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O.J. Simpson was familiar sighting in some Colorado mountain towns
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Approved, State, Westword

O.J. Simpson was familiar sighting in some Colorado mountain towns

By Chris Perez | Westword It's not often that an accused murderer and convicted felon gets treated like royalty, but that's what happened for years in Summit County and popular mountain towns like Vail and Aspen when O.J. Simpson showed up. “They’re exceptionally nice," Simpson told the Summit Daily News in 2006, noting that Summit County was home to the friendliest people he had ever met. "I don’t want to say Mayberry, but I’d say Stepford," Simpson said. "It's hard to believe you still get a good neighborly feel somewhere. People are happy to just say, ‘Hi, welcome.’ Normally everyone wants something — an autograph, a picture." Simpson, who was found not guilty of the 1994 killing of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman in one of the world's most in...
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‘How much are we spending on it?’: Denver auditor reviewing costs of city’s homeless shelters
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Approved, Local, Westword

‘How much are we spending on it?’: Denver auditor reviewing costs of city’s homeless shelters

Chris Perez | Westword An audit of Denver's shelter system and how much the city is actually spending on housing the homeless is in full swing, according to the Denver Auditor's Office, which hopes to have things wrapped up by late July or early August. "I don't know if they've ever been audited. I know they haven't been audited since I've been the auditor," says Tim O'Brien, who was elected to the independent post in 2015. "One of the biggest questions is, how much are we spending on it?" Last week, the City of Denver made headlines after it was revealed during a Denver City Council Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness committee meeting focusing on House1000 financials that officials had only spent $10.3 million of the $46 million they expected to spend on the homeles...
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Denver has a ‘Newcomer Director’ and a continuing illegal immigration crisis
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Approved, Local, Westword

Denver has a ‘Newcomer Director’ and a continuing illegal immigration crisis

By Bennito L. Kelty | Westword In December 2022, the City of Denver declared an emergency after the arrival of thousands of migrants from the southern border. Since then, nearly 40,000 of them have come to the city. The response has cost Denver $61 million so far and could cost another $120 million in 2024, according to city estimates, but Mayor Mike Johnston believes his new director of Denver's Newcomer Program will steer the city toward a more sustainable path.  Now a month into her role, Sarah Plastino's duties include compassion to migrants while shifting the city's strategy from emergency response to a long-term plan. An immigration defense lawyer, Plastino told a small group of reporters during an interview on Wednesday, March 20, that this is "a refugee cris...
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Denver to close four shelters for illegal immigrants, starting with Aurora
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Approved, Denver Metro, Westword

Denver to close four shelters for illegal immigrants, starting with Aurora

By By Bennito L. Kelty | Westword The migrant crisis in Denver is Mayor Mike Johnston's biggest challenge so far in 2024. Since December 2022, more than 39,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have shown up in Denver. To the tune of $58 million — all funded by local taxes — the City of Denver has either put them in hotels converted to shelters or bused them to other locations. For Denver to keep housing, transporting and feeding migrants through 2024, Johnston had predicted the city would need $180 million. To slash $60 million off that figure, he announced today, February 28, that the city will close four of its ten migrant shelters during the next month, at a rate of one per week. The mayor clarified that "no one is being displaced from these shelters, no one's length-of...
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