News
Colorado air agency’s policies ‘inadequate,’ but no evidence of falsified data, report says
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Friday released the results of an independent investigation into allegations of illegal air-quality permitting procedures made earlier this year by three whistleblowers in the state’s Air Pollution Control Division. The public report on the findings of the investigation, conducted by attorneys from the law firm Troutman Pepper, says that […]
Huge uptick in pandemic ‘air rage’ hits flight attendants
Flight attendants have been subject to unprecedented harassment over masks and more during the pandemic, and a U.S. House panel on Thursday heard the raw details of those “air rage” incidents. While there’s no hard data, the leader of the flight attendants’ union said the most aggression appears to occur in Southern states where there’s […]
Who will get a booster shot? A Q-and-A about what the feds are saying
WASHINGTON — Booster shots soon will begin rolling out to some Americans who received the two-shot vaccine made by Pfizer — after a contentious and confusing federal approval process that isn’t over yet. Determining who exactly should be rolling up their sleeves for an additional dose was tricky. The Biden administration had leapfrogged federal regulatory […]
Arizona ‘audit’ finds Biden won — by more votes — and no evidence of fraud
“Arizona ‘audit’ finds Biden won (by more votes) and no evidence of fraud” was originally published in the Arizona Mirror. After months of work and some $6 million spent, a so-called audit that Trump supporters claimed would show that the election had been stolen from the defeated president found that Joe Biden actually won Arizona […]
Pay raise for home health providers relies on federal money and ‘compliance reviews’
State lawmakers voted this week to approve a complex plan that would boost pay for frontline workers who care for aging adults and people with disabilities. The plan stems from legislation passed earlier this year that included a directive to the state’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, or HCPF, which runs Colorado’s Medicaid […]
Human composting is coming to Denver
A dead person is transformed from human remains into soil in 30 days through a process often referred to as human composting — and it’s now legal in Colorado. Natural organic reduction — the formal term for human composting — is legal only in three states: Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Washington in 2019 became the […]
Cost of state investigation into Aurora Police Department is $2.3M
A state investigation into the Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire Rescue had a total price tag of nearly $2.3 million, according to a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office. The majority of the cost was covered by outside organizations and law enforcement experts who donated their time instead of billing the state. The attorney […]
Redistricting commission staff releases third — and possibly final — congressional map
Colorado’s Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission on Thursday released the latest — and possibly final — version of a plan to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries as the deadline for the once-a-decade redistricting process nears. The new plan is the third map to be drawn by the commission’s nonpartisan state staff, based on feedback from its […]
Here’s where Colorado representatives stand on the Women’s Health Protection Act
All four Democratic members of the U.S. House from Colorado — Jason Crow, Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse and Ed Perlmutter — are co-sponsoring the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, which would protect a woman’s right to get an abortion, and would prohibit states from creating bans or medically unnecessary restrictions on abortions. Newsline reached out […]
Orphaned, infected, in crisis: How the pandemic is traumatizing kids
WASHINGTON — The coronavirus pandemic has brought heartbreaking consequences for millions of U.S. children, even as most avoided serious illness themselves, pediatric experts told Congress on Wednesday. Take, for instance, a young girl from Tennessee named Sophia, whose story was relayed by Dr. Margaret Rush, president of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University. Within […]
Smokescreen: Years of internal complaints suggest air agency’s favoritism toward polluters
At the pediatric clinic where Dr. Sheela Mahnke sees her young patients in Thornton, 85% of the families who walk through the door are on Medicaid. Many come from the predominantly low-income and Latino neighborhoods in the north Denver area that have struggled with a long history of air and water pollution. And over the […]
Advocates press for action in Congress on voting rights, despite grim outlook
WASHINGTON — Activists are ramping up the pressure on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to move on his chamber’s version of a voting rights bill, even though there’s no sign there will be enough Republican support to advance it. Alternatively, they’re pressing for an end to the filibuster, though there’s no indication there would be […]