Hardly working
Colorado’s Department of Human Services could face a $4.8 million sanction for failing to meet a federal requirement that 50 percent of Colorado Works participants be involved in “work activities” like job training or education programs. A recent audit shows just under a quarter are. As The Denver Post’s John Frank reports, feds are concerned that the state spent only 1.5 percent of the program’s funding on work activities.
Released but still confined
Darrell Havens is in a wheelchair for life because an Arvada cop put bullets in his spine in 2007. His persisting medical issues are some of the worst in the DOC, and he’s suing police for it. Westword’s Alan Prendergast reports that Havens was quietly released on special medical parole earlier this month.
Brace for impactr
Head of the state health department Larry Wolk says stakeholders need to be ready to come together to draw up an emissions reduction plan when the EPA drops new carbon-pollution standards next month. Peter Marcus at The Durango Herald walks through what that process will look like.
Nun too pleased
Little Sisters of the Poor didn’t like the ruling they got in the 10th Circuit Court last week, so now they’re taking it to the Supreme Court. The group of Denver nuns claims that facilitating employee access to birth control is a violation of their religious conscience — even though they’re already exempt from providing it themselves. Via The Durango Herald.
Activist or arsonist?
A 32-year-old woman from Manitou Springs who burned a Confederate flag in her own backyard over Independence Day weekend has been charged with arson. The act is typically protected as free speech, but police say it posed a danger to city property and the surrounding community. Via KOAA-TV.
Pastors sentenced
A Boulder judge went above and beyond prosecutors’ requests Thursday, sentencing two pastors from VineLife Church to ten days in jail for not reporting allegations that the church’s youth pastor committed sexual assault. “A message has to be sent that this cannot happen,” said Judge David Archuleta. Via The Daily Camera.
Dress up
A local artist wants to drape LED lights over the Martin Drake coal plant in Colorado Springs. The smoke-belching stacks right off I-25 are a big polluter and money-suck, but considered iconic in the city. “If Drake stays,” said councilman Don Knight, “we’ve got to find some way to put lipstick on that baby.” Via The Gazette.
Photo by TaxCredits.net, Creative Commons, via Flickr.
