Listen:
-
play_arrow
MorningMagazine_2025-04-01 Gabrielle Mendoza
Jeanette Vizguerra update
Attorneys fighting in the detention and potential deportation of Jeanette Vizguerra, a well-known immigrant rights activist, argued that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, retaliated against Vizguerra and violated her right to free speech.
The first hearing in Vizguerra’s case was last Friday, in Denver federal court.
During the hearing on Friday, her attorney, Laura Lichter, added First Amendment rights to the petition asking for Vizguerra’s release.
Vizguerra, who was detained during her break from a shift at a Target in Denver, is being held at the ICE GEO detention center in Aurora. Lichter said that ICE agents who surrounded Vizguerra said, “We finally got you” as they chained her around the waist and arrested her.
Lichter has until April 8 to file her amended petition to free Vizguerra. The government has until April 29 to respond. During that time frame, Vizguerra will not face deportation.
That’s all according to The Colorado Sun.
NAACP Boulder County shuts down, cites city’s suppression and undermining
The Boulder County chapter of the NAACP will shut its doors.
The decision, announced last week, came in the wake of what chapter leaders call “persistent retaliation” from the City of Boulder, including efforts to “suppress and undermine [their] efforts toward racial equity.”
In a public announcement, leaders cited particular issues with City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde, police leaders, and “associated governmental entities.”
Tensions between NAACP Boulder County and the city accelerated in 2023, when the city brought former Aurora Police Department officer Stephen Redfearn in as interim chief.
In a statement to The Daily Camera, city of Boulder officials said “it is unfortunate that in the chapter’s statement announcing its decision, the leadership seeks to place the responsibility for its failure to operate effectively and in good faith on the city.”
While the NAACP Boulder County branch will no longer exist, leaders say their “commitment to safety, justice, and equality will grow stronger.”
You’ll hear more about that decision from NAACP leaders this week, during our morning news programming.
Magnus White Death Trial
The trial of a Westminster woman charged in the death of a young Boulder cyclist enters its second day today.
The trial began in Boulder with jury selection yesterday, and is expected to last about a week.
In opening arguments, prosecutors argued that 23-year-old Yeva Smilianska hit Magnus with her car and made no effort to swerve or brake. She had allegedly spent the night partying and drinking with friends, and texted a friend that she was “falling asleep” behind the wheel not long before the crash.
Smilianska has denied these allegations, claiming instead that her car’s steering malfunctioned. Authorities, however, say her car was functioning properly when Magnus was killed.
Smilianska is charged with reckless vehicular homicide in Magnus White’s death. The defense argues that Smilianska is guilty of careless driving causing death, not vehicular homicide. The former is a lesser charge with a shorter sentence.
At the time of his death, Magnus White, a national team cyclist, was planning a trip to Scotland to compete in the Junior Downhill Mountain Bike World Championship. After that trip, he would have returned to Boulder High School as a senior.
Boulder will host Sundance
The Sundance Film Festival is moving from Park City, Utah, to Boulder, Colorado.
Governor Jared Polis made the announcement Thursday afternoon outside the Boulder Theater.
Boulder beat out two other finalists — Cincinnati, Ohio, and a joint bid from Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah, where the festival has been held for four decades.
State Representative Brianna Titone, a Democrat from Jefferson County, is sponsoring a bill to offer tax incentives for Sundance and other film festivals.
Titone, the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker, says those incentives likely played a major role in the decision, but Colorado’s progressive policies were also a factor.
Utah lawmakers recently passed a measure banning the display of Pride flags in schools and government buildings.
Boulder will officially become the home of the Sundance Film Festival in 2027.
Colorado Measles Case
Measles has officially come to Colorado this year.
The Pueblo resident with the state’s first confirmed cases of measles since 2023 recently traveled to an area in Mexico with an ongoing measles outbreak. They were not vaccinated, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The person may have exposed people to measles between March 17 and 21 at the Southwest Deli and Cafe in Pueblo, as well as at the Southern Colorado Clinic in Pueblo West from 3:30-6pm on March 22nd.
If you or someone you know may have been exposed, officials recommend monitoring your symptoms for 21 days and avoiding public gatherings as measles are highly contagious. Some symptoms included high fever, cough, runny nose, water eyes, tiny white spots inside the mouth, and a rash, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
