Denver Post Politics

In February, Denver City Councilman Darrell Watson said he would propose a change to Denver’s tipped minimum wage structure within a month to help the struggling industry. “I will be leading a process to focus on the tipped credit that’s a balanced approach,” he told The Denver Post. Six months later, Watson has proposed nothing. “I think city council has dropped the ball on this,” said Scott Wasserman, a Denver-based restaurant consultant. Watson, who is up for reelection next year, declined

Dozens of community members filed into Arapahoe County District Court on Wednesday morning, slowly filling the fourth-floor courtroom in support of a group of protesters arrested during a July anti-ICE demonstration. Supporters moved from one courtroom to the next shortly before 9 a.m., as the four protesters stood before judges for arraignment in different court divisions. Less than an hour earlier, the group had gathered outside the courthouse, chanting and waving signs that read “Drop the cha

Republican Victor Marx has appeared to keep up with Democrat Phil Weiser in the cash race for Colorado governor — but a much higher spending rate, mostly going to more fundraising mail, has left Marx with a notably lighter war chest heading into the campaign’s home stretch. Less than a month before ballots start arriving in mailboxes , Marx this week reported having about $215,000 in the bank. Weiser, the state’s attorney general, reported about $827,000 in his campaign account

By JOSH BOAK WASHINGTON (AP) — In the real world, President Donald Trump is struggling to stop inflation, rout the Iranian government and restore American manufacturing with tariffs. However, it’s a different story in the fantastical vision that he shares with supporters on social media. Over Labor Day weekend, Trump and the White House unleashed an extraordinarily heavy torrent of memes that portrayed the president as singularly powerful. One video depicted Trump as a superhero wielding Green L

Mayor Mike Johnston formally launched his campaign for reelection Tuesday evening, kicking off the start of a race that will serve as a referendum on his approach to homelessness, housing affordability and bringing new life to downtown. “We are going to make sure this city serves you back and gives you a home where you can breathe deep and not worry about how you pay the rent next month. And that is what we will do in the next term,” Johnston said to a crowd of dozens of supporters g

<p><strong>By ERIC TUCKER</strong></p><p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is demanding testimony before a Florida grand jury in an investigation aiming to establish an <a href="https://apnews.com/article/justice-department-russia-trump-bondi-gabbard-55bd00e15fe18da1533b623c3ca9bbbb">intelligence community conspiracy</a> against President Donald Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.</p><p&

By WILL WEISSERT WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is embracing his inner cowboy, seeking to gallop into this week’s Republican convention in Dallas and save the midterm elections for his party just in the nick of time. As first-of-their-kind festivities open Wednesday, Trump wants to stoke his core supporters’ enthusiasm by making Election Day on Nov. 3 all about himself — a referendum on his record at an event he conceived to help his party, even if he’s not actually on the ballot. The

By ROB GILLIES TORONTO (AP) — The United States sharply escalated its trade war with Canada on Tuesday, banning some Canadian dairy products and motorcycles as well as most alcoholic beverages after retaliatory Canadian tariffs took effect on about $20 billion in U.S. goods. President Donald Trump also moved to shut Canadian products out of large, long-term U.S. government contracts, broadening the confrontation beyond tariffs as relations between the longtime allies deteriorate further. The out

Significant swaths of Colorado’s public forests and hills could open up to motorized travel under a rule change proposed by the U.S. Forest Service. The change, if approved, would upend a decades-old standard. Instead of closing roads and trails to motorized traffic unless otherwise noted, the new rule would open them to all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and other machinery by default, unless they’re explicitly closed to such traffic. The proposed change to the agency’s travel m

It’s been nearly a decade and a half since voters in Colorado last approved the expansion of a county commission from three to five members. Residents of two Colorado counties — each at opposite ends of the political spectrum — have revived the debate and are set to decide this fall whether to add two more county decision-makers to the mix on each’s board of commissioners. Left-leaning Boulder County and conservative Douglas County will have commission expansion questions

Four months into Denver’s contract with its new electric scooter and bike provider, members of the City Council are asking pointed questions of Veo about a recurring problem: sidewalk riding. The city has had an ordinance in place since July 1 that requires the company to use technology to prevent the practice, which has drawn complaints for years. But still, residents have said that the problem continues. “When the public was told there would be a new law that prevents people from r

By JACK BROOK and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN WASHINGTON (AP) — The widow of an airman killed on a combat mission in the Middle East said it took a viral social media post to get resolution from the Pentagon on issues related to her husband’s benefits and basic pay months after his death. Maj. Alex Klinner, 33, was one of six crew members of a KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq in March while supporting operations against Iran. He’s one of 18 U.S. service members killed, along with 79

By SHARON LURYE and ANNIE MA The Trump administration this week quietly released an update to a major survey on civil rights in schools that was scrubbed of all data related to nonbinary students or bullying based on gender identity. The numbers come from the Education Department’s Civil Rights Data Collection, a federal survey of nearly every public school in the nation. The release this week covers the 2023-2024 school year, when the survey included “nonbinary” as a gender category along

By SARAH RANKIN RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Wisconsin’s candidates for governor want to limit them, while Pennsylvania’s say they support a ban. A Michigan congressional candidate called them “un-American.” A Florida Senate candidate is selling merch opposing them. Across the country and up and down ballots, candidates from both parties are increasingly on the attack over Flock cameras, the AI-powered nationwide network of automated cameras that record license plates and other characteristics of all pa

Colorado and 20 other states are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for banning the use of federal funds to pay for gender-affirming care for youth insured by Medicaid. The attorneys general argued that when Congress created Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, it left most decisions about which services to cover up to the states. The federal government and the states split the cost of covering low-income people through the programs, with Colorado respo

A Denver judge allowed the Libertarian Party of Colorado to place a new candidate for secretary of state on the ballot Friday after the first contender abruptly dropped out of the race last week. The ruling, which came fewer than 24 hours after a Thursday hearing, means that Sean Vadney will appear as the Libertarian candidate on the Nov. 3 ballot. The party had moved quickly to install Vadney last weekend after Alex Astley, who won the party’s primary in June, withdrew. But because Astley

By JESSE BEDAYN The Trump administration said Thursday that excavation work will start over the next two weeks on the site where it plans to build a towering, gilded arch, a project that is facing a lawsuit and that critics say will disrupt historic sightlines in Washington, D.C. The proposed arch is one of several projects the Republican president is pursuing to leave his lasting imprint on Washington, including renaming and renovating the Kennedy Center, building a huge new White House ballroo

By MATTHEW BROWN BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service is closing 23 research stations in more than a dozen states as part of an organizational overhaul under President Donald Trump that is intended to trim costs and concentrate the agency’s resources in Western states, officials said Thursday. Work being done at the research stations will continue at other sites, Forest Service Associate Chief Chris French said in an interview. An additional 41 research facilities that faced possible c

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, MICHAEL CASEY and NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reject an order by a federal judge that halts it from implementing a new rule regulating mail ballots, hours after being unable to tell that judge whether the computer system that would govern the entire project was operational yet. The administration filed its appeal the afternoon before mail ballots were scheduled to be sent out by North Car

Students from more than 180 schools across Colorado are expected to walk out of class Friday as part of a statewide protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, student organizers said this week. The “ICE Out” protest is being organized by several advocacy groups, including the Colorado Youth Coalition and 50501 Colorado. “Students across Colorado are standing together and walking out to demand that our communities are treated with dignity, safety, and resp