Starbucks Strike, Boulder Star Safety Upgrade, Louisville Nonprofit Funding, Trump Pressures For Tina Peters’ Release

Headlines Monday November 17, 2025

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    Starbucks Strike, Boulder Star Safety Upgrade, Louisville Nonprofit Funding, Trump Pressures For Tina Peters’ Release KGNU News

 

Starbucks Strike

A strike by unionized Starbucks employees is into its fifth day today, with no end in sight. At last word, there are no negotiations scheduled between the Starbucks Workers United union and the coffee company.

The nationwide strike includes several Starbucks locations in the Boulder area. Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado briefly appeared at a picket line at a Lafayette Starbucks last week, and joined strikers in chanting, “No contract, no coffee.”

Senators Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet were among twenty-six Senate signers to a letter to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol. The letter urges Starbucks to “reach a fair agreement with its workers,” adding that “it is clear the company has the money” to do so.

Starbucks Workers United said on its website that more than a thousand union baristas joined in the strike. They’re calling it the “Red Cup Rebellion” against unfair labor practices.

The open-ended strike began last Thursday on the company’s “Red Cup” day promotion, one of its busiest times of the year.

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Senate letter

Hickenlooper chanting

Louisville Nonprofit Funding 

The Louisville City Council has approved more than $22,000 as a one time payment for six food assistance nonprofits.

Funding recipients are Boulder County Cultivate, Coal Creek Meals on Wheels, Community Food Share, Louisville Community Food Bank, Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence and Sister Carmen Community Center. Each addresses food insecurity in some way, according to the Daily Camera.

Even with the end of the government shutdown and the restoration of SNAP benefits, there is a greater need for assistance than was thought, one council member said.

Colorado officials said last week that payments from SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, would be made as rapidly as possible. About 600,000 Coloradans, 19,000 of them in Boulder County, rely on the program.

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Boulder Star Safety Upgrade

The Boulder Star on Flagstaff Mountain, has been upgraded with a remote sensor that turns off the lighting system during high wind conditions. The Boulder Chamber, which commissioned the system installation, told 9News the upgrade serves as a precautionary action due to the US 36 corridor’s susceptibility to wildfires.

The Boulder Star was lit last Tuesday to commemorate Veterans day, and will remain lit every night through the beginning of January. The freshly installed system will shut off the lights when winds reach dangerous conditions, in order to minimize the risk of a brush fire.

KGNU has consistently reported unseasonably warm and dry conditions as the seasons have been changing – those conditions lead to increased potential for wildfires sparking.

9News says increasingly dangerous fire conditions during the winter have become a trend throughout Colorado.

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Trump Pressures For Tina Peters’ Release

The Trump administration is pressuring Colorado to transfer former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from state prison to a federal prison.

Peters is currently serving a nine year sentence, after her conviction on felony charges relating to her efforts to give a man unauthorized access to voting machines in 2021. She is serving her sentence at a medium-security, state women’s prison in Pueblo.

Moving Peters to a federal prison could clear the way for her release, according to 9News. Trump cannot pardon her of the state convictions, but it’s been speculated that by having her in federal custody, the administration could find a way to free her. Peters supported Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.

The Colorado Department of Corrections has confirmed that it has been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Prisons about Tina Peters.

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King Soopers weapon

A lawsuit against the company that made the high-powered weapon used in the King Soopers shooting in Boulder four years ago is moving forward. A Superior Court judge in Connecticut last week denied the gun company’s motion to strike the case.

The lawsuit against gun maker Sturm, Ruger and Company was brought by some of the victims’ families, over the company’s marketing of the weapon used in the massacre.

While technically a pistol, advocates say the gun maker marketed it as an AR-15-style rifle. Because of that, the suit says the company should not be shielded by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. 10 people, including a Boulder police officer, were killed at the store in March 2021.

The gunman is serving ten consecutive life sentences plus more than a thousand additional years in state prison.

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