Author: CHRISTOPHER OSHER
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Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s fundraiser in Hawaii draws complaint from Republican group
Following a fundraiser at an exclusive resort in Hawaii, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is facing a complaint accusing him of violating the state’s campaign finance laws. Defend Colorado, a Republican affiliated dark money group that has put Democrats in its crosshairs before, has filed a formal complaint alleging that the Democratic attorney general did…
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Justice being denied in a Colorado county because of persistent evidence delays, prosecutor charges
Brian Puerta told police he was bedded down at a truck stop in rural Huerfano County, snuggled up in a sleeping bag in the front passenger seat of his blue Buick when a stranger banged on the passenger window in the middle of the day and demanded that Puerta follow him. Brian Puerta inspects scars…
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Thousands of new homes in Colorado in peril as wildfire protection plans languish
Fire chief Jay Teague discusses the wildfire preventative measures for the Four Mile Fire Protection District. (Video by Skyler Ballard and Katie Klann) Developers built tens of thousands of new homes in Colorado’s riskiest areas for wildfires over the last decade, while local and state forest officials allowed wildfire protection plans across the state to…
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CDOT spent at least $3.2 billion through procurement practices in past decade that didn’t rely on traditional low-bid pricing
Over roughly the past decade at least $3.2 billion of the state’s transportation constructions projects used “alternative delivery” programs that steered clear of strict low-bid procedures, sending about 80% of that money to projects involving two contractors, a review of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s procurement processes by The Gazette found. The newspaper’s review further…
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Colorado’s troubled partnership with California COVID-19 testing firm
Colorado paid more than $89.2 million to a coronavirus testing provider run by an ambitious 25-year-old entrepreneurial college dropout in California. But state officials abruptly severed ties with the company after federal regulators warned that those officials allowed improper use of the test in nursing homes with some of the highest death rates in the…
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Coronavirus surged in nursing homes in late 2020, propelling state to highest death rate in the nation
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct a fact: The state provided Curative Labs coronavirus testing to nursing homes for surveillance and outbreak testing, but nursing homes were not mandated to use the facility; they could choose or procure another testing resource if that resource met or improved upon testing timeframes for the…
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Colorado ‘red flag’ law shows some success, but inconsistent use
The 33-year-old Denver man liked to strap three handguns on to his belt for his sessions with his psychiatrist and often made veiled threats, telling her once that she should take more care about letting people like him come back to her office. Police later found a cache of 33 firearms in his apartment and…
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Colorado’s judicial branch mum on details of alleged settlement between Court of Appeals judge, law clerk
Colorado’s judicial branch will neither confirm nor deny whether it has any additional records on the allegation that a Court of Appeals judge negotiated an agreement with a law clerk to prevent the clerk from disclosing sexual harassment claims, citing a provision of its rules that requires confidentiality for all investigations it conducts into sexual…
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Results of fraud audit into Colorado judicial misconduct memo may never become public
The Colorado Supreme Court this week handed over for investigation to the Colorado State Auditor’s Office a memo detailing nearly two dozen instances of judicial and administrator misconduct at the heart of an alleged $2.72 million hush money contract scandal, but the public may never get a chance to find out what the Auditor’s Office…
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Memo detailing alleged judicial misconduct, sexual harassment also describes sexist workplace
The memo released Monday detailing more than a decade of sexual harassment and discrimination allegations reaching into the top ranks of Colorado’s judiciary also described a tilted playing field that put women working for the judiciary at a disadvantage. And it documented the fight of a woman who long held hopes of becoming the state’s top…