Here’s our daily roundup of some of the news around Colorado that caught our attention:
• Boulder police returned two 20-gallon drums of marijuana that were stolen from a medical-marijuana clinic last week, the Boulder Daily Camera reports. Police…
The Aurora City Council is weighing whether to start charging shoppers 12 cents for every plastic bag, The Aurora Sentinel reports. The proposal, modeled on a state plan that fizzled in the legislature earlier this year, could cut down on trash and raise $2.6 million in its first year, city officials said.
An Arapahoe County jury decided Monday that Robert Keith Ray will be sentenced to die for arranging the 2005 killing of a witness to another murder committed by Ray a year earlier, the Aurora Sentinel reports.
Community organizers are recruiting volunteers to pressure lenders and law enforcement officials not to foreclose on homes in Colorado — and, if the pressure doesn’t work, volunteers plan to lock arms and resist sheriff’s deputies when they arrive to evict homeowners.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) plans to bring its Home Defenders campaign — unveiled in a handful of cities across the country last month — to the Denver area this Saturday with a rally at the Aurora home of Leonard McWilliams, a disabled Air Force veteran and single parent of three teenagers who has fallen five months behind on his mortgage.
The Aurora City Council voted Monday night to offer insurance benefits to same-sex partners of city employees after agreeing to add coverage for opposite-sex domestic partners to the proposal. The benefits expansion — at an estimated cost to the city of $100,000 annually — passed on a 7-3 vote with opponents voicing concern about the cost to the city, which is facing multi-million dollar shortfalls this year and next.
After numerous delays, the Aurora City Council will debate, on Monday, whether to offer insurance benefits to same-sex partners of city employees. This comes just after the Colorado State Senate gave initial approval to a bill that would do the same for state employees. The Colorado Independent will be live-blogging the Aurora decision starting at 7:30 p.m.
The City of Aurora, Colorado’s third-largest, decides Monday night whether to offer insurance benefits to same-sex domestic partners of city employees.
The question could be contentious, as a budget deficit estimated from $6 million to $12 million has the city of 300,000 tightening belts at every turn. Some opponents say the roughly $50,000 annual cost to add the benefits is a luxury the city can’t afford. Others say the city can’t compete for employees without joining the 20 other municipalities across the state offering domestic partnership benefits. The 11-member City Council has discussed the measure at committee meetings and study sessions but remains divided, ushering it to Monday’s formal meeting on a 6-5 vote. Tonight, we’ll be live-blogging the debate and posting the result as it happens. Please join the discussion in the comments section below.
Seven of the 10 African-American union firefighters in Aurora resigned from Aurora Firefighter Protective Association Monday, claiming the union hasn’t done enough to recruit or help promote African-Americans, The Denver Post reports. Only 3 percent of the city’s firefighters are black, while blacks make up 14 percent of the population, the breakaway group said.
An Aurora fifth-grader was “screaming and loudly arguing” with other students on the playground last Thursday in a dispute over a handmade anti-Obama T-shirt that led to the student’s suspension, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Aurora Public Schools district. The boy’s sister wore a similar shirt at the school the same day and “did not disrupt learning,” the statement said.
The father of an Aurora fifth-grader said Monday he plans to sue after school officials suspended the youth last week when he wouldn’t remove a home-made T-shirt reading “Obama a terrorist’s best friend.”
“It’s the public school system,” Dann Dalton told Fox31 News, “let’s be honest, it’s full of liberal loons.”
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