Quit while you’re behind
Two high-ups at the Department of Veterans Affairs threw in the towel before an investigative board could hold them responsible for their part in the Aurora V.A. hospital disaster. As The Denver Post‘s Mark Matthews reports, attorney Phillipa Anderson and construction chief Glenn Haggstrom will go free, because their wrong-doing wasn’t criminal.
Church takeover
Developers have been spinning a web of ugly condos in Denver’s historic African-American Five Points neighborhood. Now, money hungry newcomers are turning the landmark Epworth Church into “mixed-use development,” code for out with tradition, in with wealth. Via The Denver Post.
Not extinct
Don’t think the drug war is over. In Denver, dozens of gang members were arrested in an action called “Black Rhino” that appears – from the press conference – to be led by white men of the law. Via The Denver Post.
Affordable Care Ehh
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the part of the Affordable Care Act that establishes nationwide tax subsidies doesn’t really affect Colorado because we’ve got our own state exchange. As Peter Marcus of the Durango Herald aptly put it, reactions to the decision “[have] been fairly predictable, with the right still calling for a repeal and the left ready to move on.”
Waiting game
Boston marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev moved to a prison in Florence, Colorado on Thursday. He’s on death row, but his appeal could take years or even decades. Via The Gazette.
Cheap pot
Marijuana is getting cheaper in Colorado, and Michael Roberts explains why in Westword: The novelty’s worn off and more shops are growing their own pot.
Holmes trial
To save James Holmes’s life, his defense will have to convince the jury he was legally insane when he opened fire in a movie theater in Aurora in 2012. His attorneys began making that case Thursday, bringing in a nurse and a psychiatrist to testify. Via the Pueblo Chieftain.
