Wild story from @sethklamann.bsky.social and @samtabachnik.bsky.social about a tiny town in remote southwest Colorado where the local government collapsed in acrimony and the state is scrambling to fix its water supply.
“Yelling has been a factor in Hartman since God was a boy,” an ex-trustee says
In mid-January, a fight at a trustees meeting collapsed town of Hartman’s government. It was the culmination of years of infighting, but now the town’s water supply is near collapse, with no government empowered to fix it. From @samtabachnik.bsky.social and me: www.denverpost.com/2026/03/08/h...
Zynex served as a Colorado startup success story — a one-man operation turned public company with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
This is the story about how it all fell apart.
www.denverpost.com/2026/03/05/z...
ICYMI: For the second straight year, Colorado lawmakers are debating whether to support a struggling industry by examining the wage protections of its workers. Last year it was restaurant servers. This year, it’s farmworkers. From @samtabachnik.bsky.social and me: www.denverpost.com/2026/02/14/c...
The municipal court in Montrose, Colorado, is not a "court of record" — meaning the public can't watch court hearings virtually, or access video after the fact, and cannot request any transcripts or audio of the day’s docket. A state law would change that. // Story by @samtabachnik.bsky.social
Current and former BHA employees alleged last week that Commissioner Dannette Smith fostered an unsafe and chaotic work environment, leading many employees to leave for other opportunities.
www.denverpost.com/2026/02/02/b...
Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration suffered from high turnover, low worker morale, and an environment in which staff felt undervalued and unable to freely express their ideas and opinions, even before the agency’s outgoing leader took the job.
www.denverpost.com/2026/02/11/c...
Workers at the JBS meatpacking plant voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to authorize an unfair labor practice strike against the company, alleging illegal conduct at the bargaining table and inside the plant.
www.denverpost.com/2026/02/05/j...
9 current and former BHA staffers told me that Dannette Smith fostered a chaotic and stressful work culture, which forced many people to seek other employment opportunities. The commissioner exhibited paranoid tendencies and managed through fear.
www.denverpost.com/2026/02/02/b...
Yesterday, I spoke with Molly Long, whose brother, Dennis Coyle, was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan a year ago.
He remains in detention w/no bed & no light in his room.
"He had all his rights and freedoms taken away," Molly said.
www.denverpost.com/2026/01/29/d...
With recent changes to state law, you could face 36x more jail time in muni court than state court for the same conviction.
A police officer has the discretion to send you to muni court or state court. That decision could bring enormous consequences.
www.denverpost.com/2024/09/22/c...
More on the Supreme Court decision here:
www.denverpost.com/2025/12/22/c...
The world of city courts was upended in late December, when the Colorado Supreme Court unanimously ruled that municipalities cannot impose harsher punishments on lawbreakers than state statute would allow for the same offense.
www.denverpost.com/2026/01/16/c...
The state has rarely used its enforcement powers to block problematic employers who bring workers under the H-2A visa, we found in a three-part investigation in 2024.
www.denverpost.com/2024/09/01/f...
Palombo and Star Farms have a long history of not paying their workers.
“Every year it’s the same,” one laborer told me in 2023. “This year they said it would change. But it’s a lie — we come and it’s the same thing all over again.”
www.denverpost.com/2023/09/19/s...
Colorado has barred the long-troubled Star Farms in Brighton from bringing migrant workers under the H-2A program after an investigation found the employer, Angelo Palombo, did not pay his laborers for months and obstructed state investigators.
www.denverpost.com/2026/01/15/s...
J-1 students say the opportunity to come to the U.S. on a work visa represents a life-changing experience.
At other times, though, the program makes participants feel like exploitable low-wage workers with few protections.
www.denverpost.com/2026/01/06/j...
Colorado’s youth detention centers are facing a staffing crisis, leading to serious safety concerns for employees and youth and low worker morale.
The Division of Youth Services employs more than 1k employees. Nearly 500 additional jobs remain vacant.
www.denverpost.com/2025/12/22/c...
These sentencing disparities have been an issue for several years, as sweeping state-level reforms drastically reduced sentences for low-level crimes.
As a result, municipal courts became the state's most punitive forum for minor crimes.
www.denverpost.com/2024/09/22/c...
NEW: The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday ruled that cities cannot punish lawbreakers beyond what state courts would allow for the same offense in a ruling that could set precedent for hundreds of municipal courts around the state // Story by @samtabachnik.bsky.social
3 Haitian refugees say their experience at JBS in Greeley has been marked by injuries, discrimination and inhospitable living conditions.
www.denverpost.com/2025/12/17/j...
This story shows the lengths to which a private-equity landlord will go to quash its tenants’ union efforts, organizers allege, using aggressive tactics honed by employers in the days before the National Labor Relations Act.
www.denverpost.com/2025/12/11/c...
Breaking: The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the conditions inside Colorado’s prisons and juvenile detention facilities
www.denverpost.com/2025/12/08/d...
In 2022, I wrote a three-part series on Bunker and the illicit antiquities trade.
She played an integral role in helping her close friend Douglas Latchford sell looted art around the globe.
www.denverpost.com/2022/12/01/c...
The Cambodian government has formally requested records from the family of the late Emma C. Bunker, a former Denver Art Museum consultant who helped museums around the world acquire looted Southeast Asian antiquities.
www.denverpost.com/2025/12/04/e...
The National Labor Relations Board has found Starbucks illegally fired workers in response to organizing, closed stores because of union votes and engaged in widespread unfair labor practices designed to quash workers’ efforts.
www.denverpost.com/2025/11/23/s...
Update: DOC officials are now allowing all inmates at YOS to purchase food from the canteen.
Previous policy only allowed those who hit certain levels based on good behavior.
Families say their sons have lost 20-30 lbs in recent weeks
www.denverpost.com/2025/11/21/c...
10 mothers told The Post that they have watched their boys lose concerning amounts of weight over the past few months, as they complain about the lack of sufficient food at the Pueblo detention facility.
www.denverpost.com/2025/11/15/c...
Ten mothers told @denverpost.com they've watched their sons in Colorado’s youth detention facility lose extreme weight over the past few months as they complain about the lack of sufficient food. “They don’t even treat prisoners of war like this,” one mother told @samtabachnik.bsky.social
The settlement marks the 4th time since 2020 that Craig has paid $ to ppl injured by law enforcement. The city has seen just 3 police shootings in its recorded history, and they’ve all occurred since 2023 -- a per-capita incident rate 20x higher than Denver’s.
www.denverpost.com/2025/07/27/c...
