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AURORA

Coloradans take housing into their own hands with initiative

Fed up with sky-high housing prices, Coloradans are taking the issue into their own hands with a November ballot initiative that would direct a portion of the state's income taxes to affordable housing projects. As housing crises bubble up nationwide, Colorado's Proposition 123 is the first statewide housing initiative in the country to make the ballot for the 2022 election, according to a database of ballot measures maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures. “We’ve reached a tipping point and we cannot continue to wait on the sidelines and hope that something happens,” Jackie Millet, mayor of the Denver suburb of Lone Tree, told a campaign kickoff event Tuesday in Aurora.

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Justice Department Secures Settlement to Resolve Disability Discrimination Against People with Opioid Use Disorder

Today the Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with Ready to Work, a not-for-profit residential, work and social services program for individuals who are homeless, with facilities in Aurora and Boulder, Colorado. The settlement agreement addresses civil rights violations identified during the course of an investigation conducted by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “People with opioid use disorder are too often subject to discrimination rooted in myths and stereotypes rather than in science,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit www.justice.gov/crt. The settlement agreement can be viewed here.

justice.gov

Haunted by mass violence, Colorado confronts painful history

On Wednesday, Reinfeld was reeling from the latest mass shooting even closer to home, after authorities say a 21-year-old gunned down shoppers at a local grocery store. “I could see at some point leaving because of all this,” said Reinfeld, a gun control activist. But it's also been haunted by shootings that have helped define the nation's decades-long struggle with mass violence. The Aurora shooting brought that terror from schools to a movie theater. After each of Colorado's biggest massacres, the local gun control movement has gained heartbroken new recruits.

Cops fired over photos tied to Elijah McClain not reinstated

The Aurora Civil Service Commission issued a decision Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2021, upholding the firings of officers Marrero, Dittrich and Jason Rosenblatt over this and similar photos. Police Chief Vanessa Wilson fired the three officers last year over two photos taken at a memorial to McClain two months after his death. AdDittrich texted the photos to two officers who stopped McClain — Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard — to try to cheer up Woodyard, authorities said. Besides the neckhold, McClain was injected with the sedative ketamine. Rosenblatt initially tried to put McClain in the neckhold but couldn’t because of his position, so Woodyard did, authorities said.

Uber, hard-hit by pandemic, sells its robot-vehicle division

SAN RAMON, Calif. – Uber is selling off its autonomous vehicles development arm as the ride-hailing company slims down after its revenues were pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic. Self-driving vehicle technology company Aurora will acquire the employees and technology behind Uber's Advanced Technologies Group in an stock transaction, the companies said Monday. Uber will also invest $400 million into Aurora, and Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Aurora's board of directors. After the transaction, Aurora will be worth $10 billion and Uber will hold 26% stake in the company, Aurora CEO Chris Urmson said in an interview. San Francisco-based Uber will lose a critical piece of its company after the pandemic cut into its finances by suppressing demand for shared rides.

A look at a Colorado Black man's death in police encounter

McClain, a 23-year-old Black man in the Denver suburb of Aurora, died in August after police officers confronted him as he was walking to a store. McClain was a massage therapist who planned to go to college, his younger sister, Samara McClain, told The Denver Post. According to a report by District Attorney Dave Young, Aurora officers responding to the report said McClain was uncooperative when they confronted him. Federal authorities also said they were considering an investigation into photos of Aurora police released last week. WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE PHOTOS TAKEN AT MCCLAIN'S MEMORIAL?

Police chief defends pepper spray at Elijah McClain vigil

Wilson said in a statement that the suspended officers were "depicted in photographs near the site where Elijah McClain died." Aurora Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said the officers were responding to a small group of agitators among the largely peaceful crowd Saturday. Three white officers stopped McClain as he walked down the street last August after a 911 call reported him as suspicious. The officers who stopped McClain were cleared by prosecutors and returned to the force, but the governor has ordered the state attorney general to reopen the case. A separate internal police investigation is underway into photos of Aurora officers taken near where McClain died.

Officers put on leave over photos tied to Elijah McClain

The interim police chief of the city of Aurora, Vanessa Wilson, said in a statement that the suspended officers were "depicted in photographs near the site where Elijah McClain died." In McClain's case, police body-camera video shows an Aurora officer getting out of his car, approaching McClain and saying, Stop right there. The chief's decision could be appealed by the officers under investigation, which would delay the results being released, he said. The three officers who stopped McClain did not face any criminal charges after an investigation by the district attorney, but Democratic Gov. Who didn't do it the right way were those agitators who were arming themselves, that were putting on helmets and gas masks and throwing rocks at my officers, Wilson told KUSA-TV.

Air Force Academy's longest-serving falcon mascot dies

(CNN) - Aurora, a falcon that served the Air Force Academy as mascot for 23 years, has died, the school announced Wednesday in a statement posted on Facebook and Twitter. The bird was a fixture at Air Force Academy sporting events as well as military and community events. Aurora was the school's longest-serving live mascotThe Air Force Academy's first class, which began courses in 1955, chose the falcon as a mascot, as they felt the species channeled the Air Force's fighting spirit. Other mascots to serve the school were named named Atholl and Baffin. A successor, Glacier, served the school from 1980 to 1995, becoming the longest-serving mascot up to that point.