Leaders look at ways to reform ballot initiatives

More than 100 people gathered at the Pueblo Convention Center on Thursday as part of a statewide attempt to tackle ballot initiative reform.

Both Pueblo chambers of commerce along with Action 22 hosted community leaders who went over a number of possible ways to reform how referenda and initiatives are placed on the ballot.

The meeting was part of a statewide effort called "Building a Better Colorado Through Civic Involvement."

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Ritter to propose cuts to K-12 education in 2010-11 budget

Personhood on move Backers believe it can find success across U.S.; foes mobilizing to defeat Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer Friday, November 6, 2009

 

With its roots in Colorado, supporters of giving human rights to embryos would like to take their case to all 50 states.

Arvada-based Personhood USA Ń a pro-life movement with the virtual goal of banning abortion by defining a “person” as “every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being” Ń has already begun mobilizing in 32 states, including Colorado. 

By 2010, they would like to have so-called Personhood initiatives in all 50 states.

“Every Personhood attempt is a success,” said co-founder Keith Mason. “We are growing by leaps and bounds, and every attempt offers new opportunities to educate Americans about the value of life.”

Mason’s opponents, however, beg to differ on the topic of Personhood initiatives being a success. They point out that a similar initiative in Colorado saw a crushing defeat in 2008, with only 27 percent of voters backing the cause.

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Denver voters Tuesday soundly defeated a ballot initiative that would have significantly restricted police discretion on whether to impound cars driven by unlicensed drivers.

Initiative 300 had prompted opposition from an array of civic and political leaders. They told voters the initiative would unnecessarily tie up police resources and become a costly bureaucratic burden. Opponents also said it was a thinly veiled attack against illegal immigrants.

The measure was rejected by nearly seven of every 10 voters.

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The true tenor of Denver's new school board may be revealed Nov. 30, minutes after new members are sworn in and the officers are elected.

The board, with three new members who won their seats in a feisty campaign framed as a battle of charter schools versus neighborhood schools, will be presented with a challenge.

Does it reverse a decision made minutes before by the old board about turnaround strategies for three district and three charter schools, which could be as controversial as closing the school programs and replacing them with charters?

Or does it move on to new business?

Reversal, observers said, would send shockwaves through the education community.

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Voters on Tuesday shifted the balance of power on the Denver Public Schools board, creating a majority that is less sympathetic to charter schools.

The seven-member DPS board, heralded nationally for pushing academic and administrative reforms, now is effectively split 4-3 along ideological lines, with the minority supporting reforms pushed by Superintendent Tom Boasberg and his predecessor, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

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DENVER—Colorado is one of several states reporting that its students have mastered math and reading skills when they don't meet tougher federal standards, federal officials said this week.

But Colorado officials say the comparison is misleading because they include different groups of students. They say Colorado fared well in other aspects of the same federal report.

The U.S. Education Department report, released this week, compared state achievement standards with the more challenging standards in the federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In Colorado, the widest discrepancy was in eighth-grade reading, where 87 percent of Colorado students met state standards but only 35 percent met the national mark, the report said.

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Reporting from Denver - Like their counterparts in cities across Colorado, Denver police decide when to seize cars from people they find driving without licenses. Sometimes they issue a ticket and let a relative take the car home; other times, they call a tow company.

But officers stand to lose that discretion as voters on Tuesday will consider a measure that would mandate authorities to impound vehicles driven by unlicensed motorists -- an initiative pushed by a local man who says law enforcement isn't doing its job of ridding city streets of unsafe, uninsured drivers.

"They talk about how police have better things to do. I don't agree. I think taking unlicensed drivers off the road is one of the most important things they can do," said Dan Hayes, 62, who wrote the initiative and collected enough signatures to place it on the ballot.

Opponents contend the initiative is a thinly disguised attempt to target illegal immigrants, noting that it would require police to take the cars of anyone suspected of being an "illegal alien."


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A report released yesterday by the Immigration Policy Center states that Latinos, whether legal or illegal immigrants, act as an economic boom to the state.

But an immigration critic says supporting immigrants outweighs any benefit. Read more about that below.

The report released yesterday states that purchasing power of Latinos in Colorado last year totaled $21 billion. Latino-owned businesses had sales and receipts of $5.1 billion and employed more than 32,000 people in 2002 — the last year data is available — the report states.

Meanwhile, immigrants and their children are growing. Foreign-born Coloradans grew from 4.3 percent in 1990 to 10 percent in 2007, making Colorado home to 485,170 immigrants that year — about the population of Sacramento, Calif.

About one in 10 Coloradans is an immigrant, and one in five is Latino. Nearly one-third of all immigrants living in Colorado is a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to the report.

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DENVER • Colorado lawmakers have given initial approval to a package of bills aimed at reducing the number of people in poverty.

Proposed measures adopted Tuesday by the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force include allowing people who claim the earned income tax credit to collect their refunds first.

Others would make it easier for convicted criminals to get jobs and for officials to waive fees for identity documents needed by job seekers.

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