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
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…
‘In the interest of justice’
ICE detaining and deporting those with pending criminal charges harms victims and the accused When Boulder County Deputy District Attorney Christina Rinke found out that Jose Lopez-Gutierrez had been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), she petitioned the district court in Boulder to revoke his bond and issue a warrant for his arrest should…
A lot of moving parts
A rundown on affordable housing in Boulder County Known as a desirable place to live, with its high quality of life, progressive values and natural landscape, Boulder County has become increasingly unaffordable over the last several decades. For many workers — teachers, firefighters, civil servants and those in the service industry — rent and home…
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…
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…
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…
A first step
BVSD updates its discipline policy and looks at ending its relationship with police departments In one of the first moves following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in late May, Minneapolis public schools moved to cut ties with law enforcement on June 2. Supported by thousands of letters from students…
Hitting on all cylinders
New agrivoltaics farm can power 300 homes “But aren’t all farms solar?,” Lynne Wesenberg asked herself as she and her husband, Dave Dell, drove by a sign for a solar farm on North 95th Street one day. It’s a route they often take, having lived in Niwot for decades. Then they saw an ad in…
ICE detaining transgender individuals despite widespread calls for their release
In Estella’s home country of Cuba, transphobia is rampant, she says. She’s been attacked. She’s been targeted by police. There are no human rights, she says. There is no access to HIV medication. “I preferred to risk my life than continue that way,” she says through her lawyer at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network…
Angela K. Evans 