Over the past few months,
@MegWingerter
and I spoke with several former patients and staff members of the Eating Recovery Center, one of the country's largest eating disorder treatment providers. They described a punitive, counterproductive atmosphere:
New: Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn is not running for re-election, he says on Richard Randall's radio show. All three Republican-held Colorado congressional seats will all be up for grabs in November.
The Star-Tribune, the last daily paper in Wyoming to print seven days a week, will no longer print on Mondays and Tuesdays. Really devastating to our newsroom staff.
Hello, it's a Personal News Tweet: Starting early next month, I'll be joining the Denver Post as a statehouse reporter. I'm crazy excited to join such a talented team of journalists, to dig into a huge new beat and to keep reporting on Denver and Colorado.
Heidi Ganahl’s campaign provided a list of schools alleged to have had issues with students dressing up as cats/other animals. One allegedly had to ban dog collars. I reached out to that district and others & was universally told that this isn’t an issue.
.
@EliseSchmelzer
& I dug through the leaked list of Oath Keeper members and found Colorado cops, military personnel, politicians. Some signed up a decade ago, but its breadth - nearly 1000 Coloradans - reveals the extent of the group’s spread here:
Hello, some personal news. Beginning mid-next week, I’m going on leave from
@DenverGazette
/
@csgazette
until Oct. 1. I’ve written several hundred pandemic stories across two states in the past 18 months, alongside some other difficult projects. I need a break, and I’m taking it.
This is patronizing. Not only do newspapers in small towns still kick ass, but journos here do 3 or 4 jobs at once. Plus, this shows a lack of care for communities; small towns deserve dedicated journalists who have institutional knowledge and local commitment, not a vacationer.
I wish there was a scheme whereby burnt out journalists could spend a year doing very very low key reporting in small towns or villages that don’t have news services ....
Breaking: Douglas County School District announces it's suing the newly formed Douglas County Health Department to block the agency's order giving families and staff members the option to opt-out of the district's mask order. Various students/families w/ health risks also suing.
Breaking: Reps. Elisabeth Epps & Bob Marshall have filed a lawsuit against the Colorado House, its leaders (Speaker McCluskie, Majority Leader Duran and Minority Leader Mike Lynch), and the Republican and Democratic caucuses for allegedly serially violating the open-meetings law.
Some personal news: Starting Oct. 5, I'll be joining the staff of the
@dnvrgazette
/
@csgazette
on their new project and product in Denver. I'm extremely excited for this new opportunity, to be part of something new and to keep growing as a journalist. 1/
New: Gov. Polis vetoes SB23-259, which would’ve let casinos extend lines of credit to gamblers. Proponents say it’s geared at high rollers, but Polis says he fears it’d just fuel harmful gambling.
Hello, happy Tuesday. Today's my first day as a statehouse reporter for the Denver Post. Please send me all of the scoops: sklamann(@)denverpost(dot)com. Weird Halloween costume ideas also welcome.
Breaking: Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announce sweeping vaccine requirement. It will require all municipal workers, K-12 and higher-ed teachers, nursing home and hospital staff, homeless shelter and jail/prison workers be vaccinated by Sept. 30.
New: U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet will co-sponsor Sen. Feinstein's federal assault weapons ban bill. He said he met with families of the 2012 Aurora shooting several weeks ago and they specifically asked him to sign on, before the Club Q shooting.
Some COVID news: Denver has been placed in the medium risk level of COVID, as has Boulder, amid a statewide uptick of cases. Colorado confirmed more than 2,300 cases yesterday, the highest daily number since early February.
Colorado Senate Dems announce key committee change. Sen. Dylan Roberts, who helped defeat a rent control bill last year, is off the Senate’s Housing committee, replaced by Sen. Faith Winter. Winter sponsored several progressive housing bills last session.
Everyone should carry Narcan, and it's really effective! But you can't overdose from touching fentanyl, whether it's pills or powder. We've gotta be better about regurgitating this stuff.
READ: A Statement by Colorado State Representatives, State Senators, Denver City Councilmembers, and a CU-Regent.
We call on the leaders of the Auraria Campus to respect the first amendment rights of all protesters and call off any and all police intervention.
Love to be ignored by public records officers for weeks, until I CC our lawyer. Suddenly, everybody wants to talk to Seth. Well pal, like when I got an Xbox in eighth grade, it's too late to be my friend now.
New: In 6-4 vote, the legislature's Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Study Committee votes to draft a bill that would allow safe drug use sites to open in Colorado. Sen. Mullica, who voted against a similar bill this year, votes in favor but says he still has concerns.
Salary of entire
@caspernewsguild
: $397,000
Avg. salary: $33,000
Compensation of Lee Enterprises CEO: $2.2 million
Someone help me budget this, my industry is dying.
If you click this link and read the story, you'll discover this is a study from WalletHub and that the reason Colorado ranks so high isn't overdoses or rates of use -- but because of rates of arrests and other enforcement actions.
Breaking: Boulder Sheriff says 991 structures destroyed. 553 in Louisville, 313 in Superior. Three people are missing, all feared dead. Recovery operation now, sheriff says.
Really excited that my old pal
@AndrewGraham88
and I won the Wyoming Press Association's Freedom of Information Award again for our UW reporting. Three straight years for the
@CSTribune
, two straight from our partnership with Andrew and
@WyoFile
.
Rep. Lynch saying he drove home drunk with a gun in his pocket because he works in Denver. He was arrested in September (meaning not during the legislative session), driving from Fort Collins to where he lives in Wellington. But Denver crime!
Breaking: We're largely won our public records lawsuit against the University of Wyoming that sought to shake loose documents we contended were improperly withheld and related to the dismissal of UW President Laurie Nichols.
New: Tim Hernandez has been selected to represent northwest Denver in the Colorado House next year, replacing Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, who was elected to a city council seat in April.
A PIO finally gets home after a long day of avoiding my calls and emails. He opens the door to his darkened apartment, where I flick on a lamp, revealing that I've been sitting in the dark and waiting for him to arrive. "Hope this finds you well," I begin.
Breaking: Denver Mayor Michael Hancock says the indoor mask order will end beginning Friday morning. People will no longer be required to wear masks or show proof of vax to enter businesses. He says biz can still require those things independently, though.
I’ve rewritten these tweets like 40 times. But the bottom line is I’d rather keep working, especially as the pandemic spirals, but I’m exhausted and need to step back for a second. As my therapist told me, I need to be selfish with my own mental health.
New: Gov. Jared Polis has signed HB23-1042, which puts guardrails on law enforcement lying to children during police interrogations. A similar bill failed last year, and there was growing concern in recent days that Polis wouldn't sign or would veto the bill this year.
Something I’m seeing frequently is people guffawing at the number of cases in Wyoming and saying that’s evidence that the measures taken are extreme and overblown, rather than seeing those efforts as effective and the very reason we have relatively few cases.
There were layoffs across Lee Enterprises yesterday, further devastating newsrooms already hobbled by years of Lee’s model of austerity journalism. Fewer reporters, fewer photographers, fewer editors. More work, thinner stories, worse coverage for communities.
The House has also now fully passed HB24-1304, which would eliminate minimum parking mandates mostly in Front Range cities. The bill now heads to the Senate, a couple days after the House sent the Senate two other land-use reform bills (ADUs and transit-oriented upzoning).
One of those members, Elizabeth Hanson, who's an attorney, repeatedly criticized the Hall & Evans attorney, Matthew Hegarty, and seemed to accuse him of conduct violations by only talking with Peterson, not the entire board.
Banned dog collars? “That is not true,” DougCo spokeswoman says. Issues in Boulder? Baseless, spokesman says. A Greeley high school? Nope, admin said. Several Grand Junction schools were on the list. Though some students wear cat-ear headbands, it’s not a problem, spox said.
By a vote of 8-3, the House’s Public & Behavioral Health & Human Services committee advances a bill that would allow overdose prevention centers (aka safe-use sites) to open, should the applicable local gov sign off first. Party-line vote after several hours of testimony.
New: Gov. Polis signs bill that eliminates local occupancy limits in Colorado. It’s the first of the land-use bills to pass and be signed into law this year.
This is my last daily update on coronavirus numbers in Wyoming. Today's my last day at the Star-Tribune, and I just filed my final story, an obituary about a famed UW archaeologist.
Good afternoon. There have now been 5,046 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Wyoming, plus 902 probable cases. Of confirmed patients, 4,060 have recovered. Of probable patients, 731 have recovered.
Really humbled and honored to have been given a PEACE Award by the Wyo Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault for
@CSTribune
reporting on Bishop Joseph Hart. The victims deserve so much credit for telling their stories, & this is for them.
Hello friends. I am back in the office today after a month off. Thank God there's been no news for the past 30 days. Now to take a big sip of coffee and check my email.
Ganahl hasn’t claimed students are using litter boxes, at least to my knowledge, and the districts I talked to all denied that, anyway. Refuting the story is exhausting, one education official said. He called it a conspiracy theory and a “vicious rumor.”
We don't need more data to prove the dire situation in Colorado, but here's some anyway. Per the
@nytimes
tracker, CO now has the third-highest per-100k rate of spread in the US. Our per-100k hospitalizations are seventh highest. Both are top-10 for two-week % growth.
New: On a 4-3 vote, a bill to enact just-cause eviction protections in Colorado (albeit with amendments coming) passes Senate committee. Same committee killed rent control bill, but the swing vote then - Sen. Dylan Roberts - wasn’t on committee tonight.
So, after about 90 mins of a meeting called because Hegarty/Hall & Evans apparently told the board they had to decide to appeal imminently, Hegarty said actually they didn't and they had 49 days to decide to appeal the injunction, not 14. Swift adjournment from there.
Thinking about that story I saw this morning of the woman who runs a Lee Enterprises paper by herself and had to produce two weeks’ worth of content at one point because she was furloughed.
The class divide has never been so apparent in media. Many journalists grew up rich, went to $20k a year prep schools, are obsessed with fights over vocabulary, symbols, fringe boogeymen -- ignore crumbling public schools, unsafe streets, rampant poverty as secondary concerns.
This is surreal. I was a copy editor two and a half years ago, drifting out of journalism & feeling completely unsure what to do next. There's still uncertainty, but the work I've been lucky enough to do here, with the people I do it with, makes it easier.
Gov. Gordon continues a hot streak of killer quotes at press conferences: "This is not a 'hold my beer moment.' This is a let's do this carefully and not lose the ground we've gained."
I am 30 today. It's all over. The world has lost all light. There is nothing left to look forward to. I am consumed by darkness and old people concerns, like commenting on the weather and being happy about new socks.
I think it shouldn’t be lost that Wyoming schools are going to lose a ton of money because the Legislature has for several years been focused basically exclusively on cutting education instead of finding new ways to fund it.
Biden admin is new. The fundamental problem is not.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow expressed grave concern about a Biden administration plan to halt oil and gas leasing on federal land, noting that it could cost Wyoming schools around $150 million in education revenue.
#wyoedchat
The board met in a special meeting at 10 a.m. to discuss a resolution that would give board president Mike Peterson sole decisionmaking authority re: ongoing litigation involving the open-meeting lawsuit. Peterson said he was uncomfortable with the language.
For what it’s worth: Sponsor and chair of committee that will hear this bill just told me this isn’t dead/hasn’t been pulled permanently. It was scheduled for a first committee hearing yesterday, was pulled from *that* day b/c of abortion debates/hearings this week.
Story on Kanye West in Wyoming -- including his official filing to join the ballot and reports that those gathering signatures for him broke electioneering laws -- here:
But I will be back, soon. So stay healthy, be well. I’m deleting this app once I’m officially on leave, for obvious reasons. Mind the world while I’m away, and remember how Really Good my tweets are (see check mark).
It's been much more difficult to leave than I thought it would be. Thanks so much for following along these past four years. It's been a privilege to report on this state and be entrusted with people's stories. Wyoming's always going to be a home for me. On to Denver.
He tried to add another resolution that would direct the board's lawyers to appeal Judge Holmes' order this week directing the board (and its four leaders specifically) to follow the open-meetings law. But that resolution was too different and statutorily had to be tossed.
The whole reason the board met this morning was because their lawyers, Hall & Evans, told them they had to file an appeal against the injunction within 14 days, and spring break is here.
This is the first I’m hearing that we were also apparently barred from covering the assembly. At least we’re in good company with our colleagues at the Sun and 9News.
Second story I’ve seen so far about the veteran data reporter getting booted from the Colorado GOP event that doesn’t include the obvious follow-up question: what *are* the alleged lies by the reporter so we can provide context for your remarks?
Breaking: Plaintiff in lawsuit against Douglas County School District says in email to me and several other reporters that DCSD deputy general counsel has told him the CORA for names of DCSD teachers out sick on Feb. 3 has been withdrawn. I’m awaiting DCSD confirmation.
Breaking: Legislative opioid/substance use committee votes to kill a bill that would've allowed safe drug-use sites to open in Colorado. Gov. Polis' office intervened to tell legislators he opposed the bill & would veto it. Committee passes four other drug policy bills.
As Peterson moved toward a vote on the new resolution, which veteran member David Ray argued was also substantially different and proceeding with it would be illegal, Hegarty then said wait, I've just re-reviewed the rules, we don't need to do this today.
So: Possessing >1g of a substance containing fent is a felony under this bill, unless you can prove at trial that you didn’t know your meth/coke/pill/etc. had fentanyl in it. Some quick thoughts:
CEO at Memorial Hospital of Converse County tells me that two men broke into a hospital building on Friday night and stole masks and attempted to steal other protective equipment from the hospital. No arrests have been made, and hospital is more closely guarding its gear.
The Robinsons, the subjects of the story
@brianstelter
shouts-out at the end of this clip, will be on CNN tomorrow to talk about recovering from the virus and their efforts to push back on the hoax narrative.
(This is a quick summary - story TK, but -) Peterson then moved to have the original resolution - which gave him sole authority on this specific matter - be changed to just appeal the decision. Protests from board's three more veteran members.
Whether you think that’s right or wrong, necessary or unnecessary, that’s an indisputable impact here. Question now must become: How does the state help those folks get *evidence-based, effective treatment* and ensure they can lead a life conducive to recovery post-release?
I will never understand people who despise media outlets, read the outlet’s work voraciously, take the most bad-faith stance on that work, use that bad-faith stance to whip themselves into a frenzy, and then repeat that process multiple times a week.