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05_08_24_am_headlines John Kelin
False Claims By Metro State University
Metropolitan State University officials have admitted to making false claims about pro-Palestinian demonstrators yesterday.
According to 9news, Metro state officials said in a public statement that protestors had zip-tied doors closed after entering a building on the Auraria campus in Denver University president Janine Davidson said it was an example of how quote, “Protestors escalate tactics.”
That claim was later removed, but without any correction.
The university then told 9news that, in fact, police had zip tied doors behind protestors after they had entered Tivoli Hall, a student union on Denver’s Auraria campus.
Protestors entered the building yesterday, as Metro State University officials met with student leaders who have been encamped on the Auraria campus for nearly two weeks, protesting the Israel-Hamas war.
The pro-Palestinian demonstrators are demanding that the universities sharing the Auraria campus sever all financial ties to Israel.
The Denver Post, meanwhile, is reporting that at least ten demonstrators were arrested last night in Metro State’s Advanced Manufacturing Sciences Institute building. They had been sitting in a circle and chanting in support of Palestine. Most of those arrested were released after about an hour.
Legislative Session Ending
Today is the final day of the 2024 legislative session in Colorado, and lawmakers are hurrying to complete as much work as possible.
The Denver Post says today’s workload includes an expected vote by the state House on Senate Bill 233, which would lower property taxes in Colorado.
And the state Senate is expected to make a final vote on a bill that would allow local governments to purchase subsidized housing properties before private buyers are allowed to bid on them.
King Soopers Defendant, Rock Throwing Defendant
There have been developments in two high profile criminal cases in the area.
An attorney representing the man charged with murdering ten people in a Boulder King Soopers supermarket three years ago has requested his client’s trial be pushed back to the spring of 2025.
At a status hearing yesterday, attorney Sam Dunn told the court that the defense would like a second sanity evaluation. Boulder District Attorney Michael Daughterty strongly objected to changing the trial date. The trial is currently set for this summer, according to the Daily Camera.
The defense has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
In a second case, one of the defendants accused of killing a 20-year-old woman last year by throwing rocks at her car is facing additional charges.
Investigators say one of the three defendants threw objects at other cars, months before the April 2023 incident that killed twenty-year-old Alexa Bartell [Bar-tell]. A rock smashed through Bartell’s car windshield and killed her as she drove near Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
The three defendants will be tried separately, with the first of the trials scheduled to begin in June.
Denver Sweep
In Denver, the city is expected to sweep a migrant encampment today.
About 100 migrants have been staying in Central Park, at a camp established by a group called All Souls, according to 9News. The people staying there include families with children.
The city says that they’re conducting the sweep because of safety concerns, and because the camp is on private property.
New Denver Homeless Shelter
Denver City Council, meanwhile, has cleared the way for a new homeless shelter in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
The City Council’s vote Monday changes zoning regulations, to permit smaller shelters, according to the Denver Post.
The new shelter will be on Mariposa street, and operated by Haven for Hope, which already operates a larger shelter across the street. The new facility will be converted from an industrial space, and used as overflow space.
The City Council’s approval came in spite of objections that came in emailed comments. Most of those were about the possible effect on crime rates a new shelter might pose.
The new shelter is located near an encampment that was swept last month, reportedly because of three overdose deaths and a series of felony arrests that happened there.
Supporters, however, said those troublesome issues are symptomatic of when people have no easy access to food, water, or bathrooms.
