Denver

DENVER– In the next few months, as the Kansas-based Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System assumes control of two hospitals in the metro area formerly run by Exempla Healthcare, nearly 40 percent of hospital beds here will be run under directives approved by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Abortions will be limited to cases where the mother is at risk of death. Reproductive services will also likely be severely curtailed, as will end-of-life care, regardless of legal advance directives authored by patients.

Lingering legal questions and ambivalent feelings on the part of Colorado’s citizenry have made launching a medical marijuana dispensary a significant business risk. But that hasn’t stopped a rapidly growing number of medical marijuana entrepreneurs from opening clinics around the state. Real estate developer Ed Kieta, for one, is betting big, having sunk more than $60,000 into the high-end “wellness center” he’s opening in the Highland neighborhood of Denver. Kieta likes the fact that he’s getting in on the ground floor of the industry, but he hates that the rules governing the industry are murky and incomplete. Kieta is therefore looking forward to the Denver City Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday that aims to put up zoning restrictions and set out basic regulations for the record.

Last night, the Denver Public School District seized hard drives from the Contemporary Learning Academy, in order to investigate allegations that the school set up “dummy classrooms” with “dummy students.”
The alleged misconduct would have increased government funding to the Academy. Schools receive state funding based on pupil head counts on the October “count day.”

DENVER — A phone bank jammed with more than 30 volunteers was ringing phones off the hook earlier this week, asking residents to vote no on “impound” Initiative 300.

“This would force police to do something that will cost us roughly $6 million to implement,” said Carolyn Siegel from Coloradans for Safe Communities, a coalition of labor, advocacy and religious groups.

In the debate surrounding Colorado’s famously loose ballot initiative system, the so-called impound initiatives introduced repeatedly in local municipalities over the past three years might serve as a test case. This year, they have been introduced in Denver and two of its suburbs, Aurora and Lakewood. The proposed laws would require police to seize the vehicles of every unlicensed driver they stop.

But the initiatives aren’t primarily about keeping the roads safe and the man behind them doesn’t live in Denver, Aurora or Lakewood. As many know by now, the man behind the initiatives is Daniel Hayes. He lives in unincorporated Jefferson County and his initiatives are a weapon in his personal battle against illegal immigrants.

As conservatives continue to gleefully hurl javelins Barack Obama’s way for his failed bid to even get his adopted hometown of Chicago on the podium for the 2016 Summer Olympics, it’s worth noting Colorado had a viable Plan B that U.S. organizers rejected earlier this year.
Denver sports organizers and winter sports heavyweights in places like [...]

Where do young people want to live now? It’s not just a barroom conversation-starter kind of question. It’s one of those difficult-to-gauge metrics– a product of some kind of instinctual mass consciousness– that will shape future economic booms and busts and cultural trends.
That’s what led the Wall Street Journal to ask some relative experts [...]

DENVER — Tiny and historic Byers Library, designed to serve local children, has been targeted for closing, a victim of the city’s $120 million budget gap. Facing mounting odds, District 5 Councilwoman Judy Montero and residents of neighborhoods surrounding the library have said they are determined to fight to extend the library’s 91-year run. But their little movement received a shot in the arm when on Friday the federal government announced funding for a neighborhood redevelopment project where planners have eyed a future library development.

Fox News and ABC are reporting the Aurora shuttle bus driver at the center of an FBI investigation into a suspected bombing plot has admitted to ties with the al Qaeda terrorist network and is negotiating a plea to terrorism charges. The lawyer representing the 24-year-old Najibullah Zazi called the reports “completely unfounded.”

The state’s top ethics panel has turned over to the Denver District Court copies of all the notes and other records made during five secret meetings a judge said were held in violation of Colorado Open Meetings Law. The judge plans to review the notes and decide whether they should be made public in response to an open records request and lawsuit filed by The Colorado Independent.