Denver news in 5 minutes: What you need to know today, May 15

(Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

staff photo

Good morning. One thing I’ve learned from reading a metric butt-ton of internet every morning is the art of tab and window management.

Try thinking of each browser tab as a “to do.” Group tabs together into windows based on the task they’re related to. Close them when you’re done with them. At the end of your computing session, clean it all up. Trust me.

Anyway, here’s today’s news, including new context on last week’s immigration news, a $7,000 Mother’s Day gift for women in jail, lawmaking recaps and more.

Night time view of Curtis Street, Denver, Colorado; "Motion Picture or Theater Row"; illuminated signs for Tabor Grand (16th & northwest corner of Curtis), Empress (1615-1621 Curtis), Iris Theatre (1746 Curtis), NanKing Chop Suey restuarant (1712 Curtis), Pool Hall, Isis Amusement Company & Theatre (1632 Curtis), Princess Amusement Company & Theater (1620 Curtis), G.C. Faris Dental Company (George C. Faris, 931 16th); non-illuminated billboards, advertisements & signage include Douglas Shoe Company, German American Trust Co., National Safety Vault Company, Royal Bar, Rock Island Lines, "Learn to dance...six lessons...Caldwell Hall." A small outside popcorn or refreshment stand is in foreground left. 1913 (Louis Charles McClure/Denver Public Library/Western History Collection/MCC-1901)  theater row; 16th street; sixteenth street; central business district; historic; archival; archive; denver public library; dpl; denverite

Night time view of Curtis Street in 1913. (Louis Charles McClure/Denver Public Library/Western History Collection/MCC-1901)

Immigration:

Last week, two undocumented immigrants who had taken sanctuary in churches learned that the federal government would not immediately deport them. They may have gotten a boost in their cases because Democratic U.S. lawmakers got involved and filed “private bills” on their behalf.

They “may be among the last recipients” of that relief, Allison Sherry reports. A new ICE directive says that the agency will only honor such requests from a few lawmakers — committee and subcommittee chairs — and that requests will only be granted once per case. (CPR)

Freeing mothers:

Brother Jeff Fard and Nita Mosby Tyler raised $7,000 and bailed three women out of jail for Mother’s Day. Besides providing a happy day for the families, they were joining a national Mother’s Day movement to show how the cash-bail system disproportionately keeps poor people in jail, sometimes for many months, before they ever get a chance to fight their charges. Kevin reports. (Denverite)

Reshaping the legislature:

Looking back over another chock-full-o’-nuts lawmaking session, John Frank and Brian Eason report that a “coalition of moderates in the state Senate helped reshape the General Assembly.” That shifted the power dynamic toward centrists among the Republicans, they write. (DP)

Marianne Goodland also has a recap of the session’s big issues. Oh, and Erica Meltzer talked over local issues from I-70 to roads funding with House Speaker Crisanta Duran. (Colorado Independent, Denverite)

Canadian lumber:

The Trump administration has put an import tax on wood from Canada. Surprise: It’s driving housing costs up by a couple hundred bucks per home, one builder tells Megan. (Denverite)

Buy new stuff or fix the old stuff?

That is the question Denver has to answer before it asks voters this year to approve up to $900 million of debt funding. The city has $789 million of “long-deferred city maintenance,” but also wants lots of shiny new parks and whatnot, as Jon Murray reports. (DP)

Slowing down?

Colorado’s economy grew at 2 percent last year, which was good for 13th in the country, but it was the state’s slowest rate since 2011. Aldo Svaldi reports. (DP)

Take me off your list:

Some jerk with a bot has apparently used 7,000 Coloradans’ personal information to post comments on the FCC’s website. The fake comments called for an end to net neutrality, as Emily Allen reports. (KDVR)

When it hails, it pounds:

The Front Range is part of “Hail Alley,”because the mountains create updrafts that play into a really complex and cool (literally) phenomenon, expertly explained here by John Ingold. (DP)

Heck of a view:

Nathan Heffel has a fun quickie about the life of a crane operator, including this video. Read the post. (CPR)

Weird times

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You’re our superpower

Denverite members have made the decision to financially support local journalism that matters to you. Ready to tell your networks why? Sharing our “About” page with your own personal comments could really help us out.