Long-form news stories about local, state and national policies with a specific emphasis on human migration, socio-economic disparities and perceptions, and the criminal justice system
Oil and grouse
The sage-grouse debate isn’t just about a bird, it’s about saving the West as we know it Sandra Goodwin, a private landowner from Boulder, Wyoming, has personally seen the effects of oil and gas development on greater sage-grouse populations near her home. When a gravel mine began hauling an average of 350 semi-truck loads a…
Tribal leaders engage Colorado Senator Bennet to ensure universal access to clean water on reservations
Lorelei Cloud grew up in a house without running water. Every week, her family would travel to her uncle’s place and haul water from his garden house back to their house. Eventually they moved and did have a water line coming in, but even then, it wasn’t drinkable due to naturally occurring methane in the…
The cost of becoming American
New federal fee structure is the latest barrier to immigration On July 31, United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced significant fee increases for most naturalization and benefits requests. While the agency justified the increase as an effort to address budget shortfalls, immigration lawyers and advocates decry the move, arguing it will not only…
Skin in the game
New Colorado police reform law nullifies qualified immunity, though the doctrine still stands at the federal level As Ryan Partridge was held in the Boulder County Jail over the course of nine months in 2016, his mental health quickly deteriorated. Previously diagnosed with schizophrenia, he was admittedly paranoid and delusional, distrustful of the jail deputies…
The new front line for ‘water protectors’
Colorado activists head to Minnesota to protest the Line 3 pipeline, while one Boulder resident sits on the board that can stop it The week of Joe Biden’s inauguration began with the news that he planned to rescind approval for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, as part of his…
Coloradans rally around immigrant parents seeking reunification with their children
On Monday, July 23, attorney Laura Lunn with the Rocky Mountain Immigration Advocacy Network (RMIAN) went to immigration court at the Denver Contract Detention Center in Aurora unsure of what would happen. She was scheduled to represent a client from Central America, who had been separated from her son at the U.S. southern border, in…
Only the 11th state
Why was the gay/trans panic defense, recently banned by state law, ever even a thing? As protesters called for racial justice outside of the Capitol in early June, one chant stood out in particular to Rep. Breanna Titone (D-Arvada). “Black trans lives matter,” she heard over and over again. And it’s one she could not…
Boulder passed its first racial equity plan. Will it work?
The City of Boulder’s racial equity plan is no panacea, according to its critics and supporters alike. Passed unanimously by City Council on Feb. 16, it’s meant to guide the City in eliminating institutional and systemic racism in its policies and practices. And it generally comes with widespread community support, with speakers at the public hearing urging…
Bringing the border to the Front Range
Area faith communities host asylum seekers as border shelters reach capacity “Does it snow here in December?” she asks me, sitting in the shade of a tree outside a Denver church on an 80-degree June day. “Yes,” I tell her, through an interpreter. “Sometimes it snows an inch, other times feet. It snowed recently in…
Taking initiative
Proponents claim access to a lawyer when facing eviction is a matter of social justice It’s 9 a.m. on a Friday in Boulder and eviction court is underway. This week, Feb. 21, the docket is fairly light with only a dozen or so cases. Judge Elizabeth Brodsky says that when she started four and a…
Angela K. Evans 