Nat Stein Posts

“If you see something, say something.”
It’s a mantra that’s constantly drilled into us in post-9/11 America. But what if you see the cops do something wrong? How do you say something then?
Umm… there’s an app for that.
Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado unveiled a new smartphone app that lets users record police interactions that get automatically submitted to the ACLU. The footage is treated as legal intake to be reviewed by ACLU staff for any

Ballots for the November 3 coordinated election will arrive in Coloradans’ mailboxes in just over a week. But if you can’t bear to wait that long and need to get your hands on it sooner, the Secretary of State’s office has just the tool for you. Coloradans can now take a sneak peak at their ballots by going to GoVoteColorado.com. Here’s how.

Denver University is “the oldest independent institution of higher education in the Rocky Mountain region,” its website boasts. Absent from the page detailing the university’s rich history is the fact that female faculty have been paid less than their male counterparts for more than a century.

In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act — a Civil Rights Era law that ensured minorities would not face discrimination at the ballot box. The court’s decision ushered in a slew of new measures that voting rights advocates say unfairly impact minorities, students and working people — like stringent voter ID requirements, politically strategic redistricting, reduced early voting and limited availability of multilingual ballots. And without the oversight authority it has had since the 60s, the federal government can’t do anything about it.

Hillary Clinton launched her Colorado campaign Tuesday from a rally at La Rumba, a Denver Latino club packed with more than 350 fans. The crowd was raring to go by the time Clinton took to the stage to talk climate change, immigration and women’s health – throwing in a few jabs at her Republican competition.

“Yeah, we’re over fire code,” a security guard said with a laugh and a shrug while eying the crowd at Bernie Sanders’ jam-packed town-hall meeting Saturday night. Around 5,000 people showed up to see the left-wing dark horse give his first stump speech in Colorado since launching his presidential campaign in May. People of all ages – mostly white – filled the air-conditioned gymnasium at Denver University well before the event was billed to start, though latecomers – or on-time comers – could still watch a live video feed on the outdoor lacrosse field.

Students may have rallied against a Colorado school boards proposed changes to the AP curricula, but it doesn't mean youth anger will spill over into the ballot box.

Aurora, Colorado, was the setting two summers ago of the horrific movie theater that made national headlines. It is also home to high-level everyday gun violence. Aurora has a 4 percent higher murder rate than does the country at large. Yet, its stance on gun rights and restrictions is nuanced (and often confused). Just don't tell that to the NRA, which is blanketing the city with Mike Coffman for Congress mailers.

Xcel Energy, the utility giant that serves much of Colorado, was ousted by Boulder voters last year in favor of a city plan to create a public municipal utility. The battle leading up to that vote was drawn-out, overtly political and full of dirty tricks. Now, customers across the state are being asked to foot the bill.

The Colorado Republican Party’s Official Independent Expenditure Committee (CORE) launched a snazzy new website today, billed as a grassroots organizing and fundraising tool for local and state pols. It’s part of the party’s healthily financed, years-long effort to catch up to the Dems’ technological edge that emerged during the Obama years.

The Colorado Republican Party’s Official Independent Expenditure Committee (CORE) launched a snazzy new website today, billed as a grassroots organizing and fundraising tool for local and state pols. It’s part of the party’s healthily financed, years-long effort to catch up to the Dems’ technological edge that emerged during the Obama years.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan filed a suit last week alleging that the Federal Elections Commission violated campaign finance law by failing to require two groups — the American Action Network (AAN) and Americans for Job Security (AJS) — to register as political action committees which would require they disclose their election spending.

The Denver District Court dismissed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains last Monday. The suit, filed by former Lieutenant Governor and unsuccessful Senate candidate Jane Norton, alleged that the state violated an amendment to the state constitution that bars the use of taxpayer dollars for abortions — akin to the Hyde Amendment on the federal level.

“Am I the only guy who’s ending sentences with ‘amen’ this weekend?” Ralph Reed, conservative political operative and born-again Christian, asked during his speech at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver this weekend. If the enthusiastic round of cheers and applause offered by the audience in response is any indication, then no, he’s not alone. The culture wars of the 90s and early 2000s have died down considerably as American society becomes increasingly secularized, but religion's role in the conservative right still looms large.