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Colorado

How A New York Landlord Exploited Anti-Immigrant Propaganda

For the past few weeks, right-wing media and politicians have been whipped up into a frenzy over the supposed takeover of an Aurora, Colorado apartment building by a Venezuelan gang after a video went viral depicting armed men in The Edge at Lowry complex. Despite the fact that numerous Aurora city officials, including the Aurora City Police chief and the city’s mayor have said that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has not taken over two troubled apartment complexes in the city, the right-wing media machine continues to spin this narrative and capitalize on anti-immigrant sentiment.

America’s Nuclear ‘Downwinders’ Deserve Justice

It’s been nearly 80 years since the first atomic bomb was tested in New Mexico. Communities have been reeling ever since. For generations, Americans who live “downwind” of nuclear testing and development sites have suffered deadly health complications. And this summer, funding for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) expired, putting their hard-earned compensation at risk. Coming alongside sky-high spending on nuclear weapons development, this lapse is an outrage. Funding for these communities, which span much of the country, should be not only restored but expanded. Alongside New Mexicans, people in Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Utah, and beyond have suffered health complications from nuclear testing in Nevada. And fallout from decades of tests ravaged the Marshall Islands, which were occupied by the U.S. after World War II.

In Colorado, Renters Earn Cash Back For Paying Rent

Danielle Rickards is a 30-year-old single mother and a full-time caretaker to her 5-year-old daughter, who has a rare heart condition. For many Americans in similar circumstances, the pressures of affording rent and daily expenses are a constant and crushing burden. But she counts herself lucky: She found an affordable two-bedroom apartment in Grand Junction, Colorado, where rent is subsidized by the local housing authority. On top of that, she also receives a rare financial bonus, part of an experimental program to build equity for affordable housing tenants in Colorado. On the 18th of every month, Rickards receives a small cash stipend – $21.62 – in exchange for paying her rent on time.

Fossil Fuel Interests Spent Millions To Tank Clean Air Bills In Colorado

Fossil fuel interests spent millions of dollars in an effort to influence Colorado’s recent legislative session, a DeSmog analysis shows — and environmental advocates say the campaign helped to scuttle a raft of clean air bills. Protect Colorado, a group that received more than $4 million from Chevron, Occidental, and other oil and gas interests, spent heavily to support pro-industry ballot initiatives before and during the session — a critical form of political leverage. Those efforts were aided by an extensive PR campaign spearheaded by the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group that spent an additional $3 million on lobbying, media buys, and digital ads from February through May, according to public financial disclosures.

Professor Resigns Over School’s Involvement In Palestine’s Genocide

My name is Z Williams. I am an alumni of the Sturm College of Law and currently a professor at the Graduate School of Social Work. Today, I am announcing my resignation from the University of Denver on the basis of the school’s ongoing involvement in the US-funded genocide against the Palestinian people. Israel is dropping 2000 pound bombs with surgical precision on refugees living in tents. We have seen their photos — charred bones, headless children, entire generations flattened. Those bombs are funded by US tax dollars, financed by US institutions, and manufactured less than a hundred miles away from Denver. The military and the government behind those bombs are funded by elite private institutions such as the University of Denver.

Pro-Palestine Campaign Challenges Lockheed Martin With All-Day Picket

Littleton, CO – On Wednesday, May 29, the Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) continued their pro Palestine actions against weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin with another all-day picket at the corporation’s Colorado headquarters. Around 50 protesters engaged in direct action throughout the day, forcing Lockheed employees to take fact sheets that laid out their location’s specific role in the ongoing genocide in Palestine, attached with explicit imagery of carpet bombing and the brutal effects of white phosphorus. The fliers pointed out the connections between Lockheed Martin and Israel, included graphic imagery of war crimes, and the specifics of the activity that Lockheed Martin is engaged in in Colorado.

Denver Police Department Brutalizes Student Encampment For Palestine

Denver, CO – On Friday, April 26, the Denver Police Department (DPD) attacked an encampment for Palestine set up by Students for a Democratic Society. The encampment was set up on Thursday, April 25 as a part of the growing wave of student encampments across the country. The organizers are demanding their universities completely divest from Israel and corporations that are helping Israel carry out a genocide against the Palestinian people. Around noon, April 26, university officials called DPD, which then descended upon the encampment and started arresting protesters.

International Indigenous Youth Council Banned From Powwow For Advocating For Palestine

Denver, Colorado — Youth representing the International Indigenous Youth Council’s (IIYC) Oglala Lakota Chapter were told they would be banned from attending the 48th Annual Denver March Powwow if they demonstrated solidarity with Palestine. It's one of the first documented instances where pro-Palestinian messages were prohibited at a Native American cultural event. The International Indigenous Youth Council’s (IIYC) Oglala Lakota Chapter published a statement on its Instagram Saturday afternoon: “Denver March tried to shut youth down, we will not be silenced.

Colorado Looks To Rental-Car Fee To Fund Passenger Rail Projects

Denver, Colorado - Colorado legislators plan to introduce a bill that will increase the state fee on rental cars by $2 to $3 per day to help pay for proposed passenger rail service along the Front Range and to Craig, Colo., the Colorado Sun reports. The fee would generate as much as $50 million annually, which the state would use for matching funds for federal grant programs — specifically targeting the $60 billion for rail projects in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. “I really want to make sure Colorado gets some of that money,” state Senate President Steve Fenberg (D-Boulder) told the Sun.

Denver City Council Upholds Mayor’s ‘No Freezing Sweeps’ Veto

On the afternoon of February 12, the Denver City Council again voted on the “No Freezing Sweeps” bill in their chambers, but this time the vote was to potentially override Mayor Mike Johnston’s veto of the Council’s passage of the bill. When the roll call took place, each council member voted exactly as they did on January 29 — seven ayes, six nays — yet this time, that vote count resulted in the official failure of the bill. At least nine “aye” votes were needed for a successful override. “Each and every one of ya’ll that voted ‘no,’ ya’ll just voted to kill people!” Jerry Burton of Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND), a local advocacy group for houseless people and their rights, was one of a few people who stood up and yelled at the City Council after the bill was officially voted down.

As Chicago Punts On Apartment Safety, Denver Shows What’s Possible

The tenant of a two-story house in east Denver had been expecting Kevin Lewis when he knocked on her door this past June. After a brief introduction and a glance around the home, Lewis quickly checked the water pressure, power outlets and the cooling sources in each room. He reached a wiry arm up to a ceiling smoke alarm and pressed a button, prompting a chirp to echo through the house. “Music to my ears,” Lewis said, already halfway to the basement to make sure the boiler had a working gas line connection. Minutes later, Lewis was gone — on to the next house. Lewis wasn’t sent by the city to investigate a complaint, nor by a prospective buyer.

Biggest Health Worker Strike In United States History Begins

On October 4, 75,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities in several US states are set to go on strike for three days following the breakdown of contract negotiations last week. A coalition of several unions representing health workers in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Virginia, and Washington, DC is battling the nonprofit health giant for safe staffing levels, cost of living pay increases, and against a two-tier pay system that Kaiser is trying to introduce. The largest union in the coalition is Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-United Healthcare Workers West (UHW) with 57,443 members, but the coalition also includes Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 30, SEIU Local 49, OPEIU Local 2 and others.

Healthcare Workers Picket At 50 Facilities In Fight For New Contracts

Unions representing more than 85,000 healthcare workers have held pickets at 50 facilities across California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado amid new contract negotiations as their current union contracts are set to expire on 30 September. The negotiations at Kaiser Permanente are the third largest set of contract negotiations in the US in 2023, behind the 340,000 workers at UPS who will be voting on a tentative agreement this month that was reached days before planned strike action, and 150,000 autoworkers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis whose contracts are set to expire on 14 September.

Colorado-Based Water Protector Faces Trial, Shares Wisdom

When Mylene Vialard followed her 21-year-old daughter across the US to join the thousands of the resistance by Water Protectors led by Indigenous women at Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, her aim was clear: to help make change, not just for the Indigenous people whose treaty rights, lifeways, and bodies have been violated, but for everyone. What she didn’t know was how much the experience would change her. That was two years ago. Today, up to 760,000 barrels of tar sands oil (bitumen), a particularly resource-intensive and harmful form of crude petroleum, gush from Alberta to Wisconsin through the completed pipeline, and the Boulder-based activist is one of several activists around the US who face felony charges in northern Minnesota’s Aitkin County. Vialard’s trial is the week of August 28.

Teamsters Rank And File Hold Speakout Against UPS Contract Proposals

Commerce City, Colorado - On June 24, rank-and-file Teamsters stood out in front of the gate of the Commerce City UPS hub outside Denver to speak out against the economic proposals UPS submitted during negotiations. These proposals include wildly unpopular ideas, such as the creation of a two-tier wage system for preloaders and a $17 per hour starting wage. As people were walking out of the gate, many workers flocked to the table, insulted by these proposals and ready for further action. “They think we're worth $17 an hour; this is what UPS thinks of their preloaders,” Kat Draken, a Teamster shop steward, furiously stated, “they must think we're joking about striking.”
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