Free Speech TV explores Gessler story in light of national trend

Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler garnered national headlines recently when he ordered county clerks in Colorado not to send ballots to registered but inactive voters– and in Colorado that means voters who missed just one election. Detractors called the effort attempted voter suppression and pointed to a host of similar Republican efforts launched nationwide in the wake of the Tea Party-wave election last November that swept Republicans into office across the country. Denver-based Free Speech TV explored the topic this week and asked Colorado Independent reporter John Tomasic, who has reported the story in-depth, to join the discussion.

Vail newspaper to launch next week

Here’s a sentence you don’t see much these days: A new newspaper will hit the streets Thursday. Erin Chavez, former Associate Publisher of the Vail Mountaineer, which closed in June along with the Denver Daily News, will launch a weekly called “Sneak Peak Vail.”

Attorney Regulation Counsel exonerates McInnis in plagiarism case, indirectly castigates Denver Post

Last year government watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch asked the state’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel to investigate charges that Colorado-licensed attorney and former Congressman Scott McInnis violated professional ethics when he reportedly plagiarized articles he was contracted to write for the Hasan Family Foundation. The plagiarism charges tanked McInnis’s 2010 campaign for governor, but the Regulation Counsel found McInnis not guilty of either plagiarizing or misrepresenting his work to the foundation. The Counsel’s report on the investigation released Friday fingers the Denver Post, which broke the plagiarism story, as the guilty party in the scandal, saying the paper’s reporting was riddled with errors.

Colorado Independent’s Williams appears on PBS energy show with Ritter, Xcel CEO Eves

Colorado Independent energy and environmental reporter David O. Williams will appear tonight on the Rocky Mountain PBS show “Colorado State of Mind” on a panel that includes former Gov. Bill Ritter, Public Service Company of Colorado (Xcel Energy) president and CEO David Eves and Western Resource Advocates executive director Karin Sheldon.

Republican House leaders fast-track Lamborn bill to defund NPR

Colorado-Springs Republican Doug Lamborn has led the charge for two years to ban federal funding for National Public Radio programming. His bill has gained traction among Republican House leaders just as a conservative dirty-tricks media campaign waged against the public broadcaster has made news. Majority Leader Eric Cantor, looking to strike while the iron is hot, fast-tracked the bill, lining up a vote for today. The bill cuts no money from the federal budget.

VIDEO: Sen. Al Franken stresses importance of net neutrality at South by Southwest

“I came here today to warn you that the party may almost be over,” Sen. Al Franken said. “They are coming after the internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important tool for indie artists and entrepreneurs: its freedom and openness.”

Medical marijuana teen says everything would change if lawmakers needed MMJ

Bill Smith, the teenage medical marijuana patient whose quest for an education The Colorado Independent has chronicled over the past month, made the TV news again last night in Colorado Springs.

VIDEO: CU scholars offer insights and context on recent events shaking the Muslim world

Popular unrest has engulfed the Arab world, and as the despots fall, the question on nearly everyone’s mind: where is this going? This week at CU, four experts on the Arab world gathered to offer insights and background skipped over by the mainstream media on the current and historical context in Egypt and the Middle East.

Media gabfest offered insights in to how some of Colorado’s leading mainstreamers think about the news

Earlier today, a handful of journalists got together downtown to discuss, what else, journalism.

Sponsored by Rocky Mountain Media Watch and the University of Colorado at Denver’s School of Public Affairs, it was a riveting if sometimes predictable discussion.

Uncoordinated (or how the Colorado Independent reported the Buck rape story)

No real reporter likes to be the subject of a story he or she has written, but that is where some part of the rape story I wrote this week featuring U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck has gone and…