Today is May 14, 2024, and here’s what you need to know:

Denver teachers bear the brunt of layoffs amid declining enrollment

Faced with declining enrollment and tight campus budgets, school leaders across Denver Public Schools have laid off more than 900 teachers since 2022, The Denver Gazette has learned.

Over the same period, school leaders cut just 16 assistant principals, district data obtained under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) shows.

Although teachers account for roughly 40% of district employees, they comprise — on average — 65% of the annual staff reductions. This suggests teachers are bearing the brunt of district layoffs.

And parents have cried foul.

Should Colorado establish national precedent in setting rules for artificial intelligence?

Gov. Jared Polis, a longtime supporter of disruptive industries and technologies, must decide in the coming weeks whether Colorado wants to go it alone and become the first state to regulate artificial intelligence in a comprehensive manner.

On the final day of the legislative session Wednesday, both the House and Senate cast their final votes necessary to pass Senate Bill 205, an effort from Democratic Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez of Denver to put some guardrails on a quickly evolving technology. The bill requires developers of AI systems to minimize risk of algorithmic discrimination and disclose how their system was “taught,” and it mandates deployers of AI systems for high-risk decisions to monitor to ensure against bias and inform customers of the use of AI.

Colorado Supreme Court justice advises police to 'tread carefully' when misleading suspects

Justice Melissa Hart suggested on Friday that police officers interrogating suspects in custody should recognize the “very, very thin line” they walk by making misleading representations during questioning, running the risk that courts will find the suspect’s confession involuntary.

“Bottom line: Officers should, I think, tread carefully when they are thinking about whether to use misrepresentation to try to induce someone to confess. Because the line is so hard to draw,” said Hart, speaking at the 2024 appellate practice update sponsored by the Colorado Bar Association.

Her remarks centered on a June 2023 decision by the state Supreme Court in People v. Smiley. There, two Thornton detectives traveled to New Mexico to take the fingerprints of Thorvyn Bullcalf Evan Smiley, who was the only suspect in an unsolved murder.

Aurora lawmakers seek to remove 'sunset provision' on mandatory minimums for car theft

A provisional Aurora car theft law imposing mandatory minimum jail sentences could become permanent after getting preemptive approval from the city’s public safety committee.

At Thursday’s Public Safety, Courts and Civil Service Policy Committee meeting, committee members agreed to move forward with an ordinance that would remove the “sunset provision” on a law requiring mandatory minimum jail sentences for car theft.

The original ordinance putting the mandatory minimum sentences in place was approved by the city council in July of 2022.

Appeals court agrees RTD not responsible for $111.5 million in costs from faulty rail line rollout

Colorado’s second-highest court agreed on Thursday that the contractor responsible for building and operating the recent expansion of the Regional Transportation District’s rail network cannot recover more than $100 million from RTD for the extended period in which grade crossing systems malfunctioned.

Denver Transit Partners and RTD engaged in a public-private partnership to construct a $2.2 billion, taxpayer-funded commuter rail network connecting Union Station to the suburbs and to Denver International Airport. However, federal and state regulators were concerned that the wireless system used to trigger the warning equipment at more than two dozen grade crossings was not operating correctly.

Consequently, between 2016 and 2019, Denver Transit Partners had to provide attendants at all grade crossings at all times while its vendors devised a software solution. The associated costs were $111.5 million, which Denver Transit Partners sought to recover from RTD through a breach-of-contract suit.