Groff Caps Predatory Lenders

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed House Bill 1310, which is designed to stop predatory lenders from unfairly targeting Colorado’s most vulnerable populations. Sponsored by Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, the bill would help people who take out payday loans and pay back the loan without getting into debt. Payday loans are short-term, usually two weeks, and made for a small amount of anywhere between $300 to $500. Payday lenders can charge up to 521percent on the loan. But House Bill 1310 caps the annual interest rate for all payday loans at 45 percent. The proposed legislation also allows lenders to charge a one-time maximum finance fee of $60 per 12 months. Excessive fees on payday loans are estimated to cost Colorado working families more than $76 million annually. The bill next heads to the full Senate for consideration.

 

State Announces Discount Drug Program

The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing announces the Colorado Cares Rx program that provides Colorado residents a convenient way to buy generic prescription medicines at a discounted price. Prescriptions are easy to fill and are conveniently delivered to the individual’s home.

Individuals and families qualify based on income and family size. A single adult can earn up to $31,200 while a family of four can earn up to $63,600. Individuals can have other health insurance coverage. Cost of a 90-day prescription is $20, $30, or $40 dependent upon the medication. The Colorado Cares Rx program is a mail-order program.

The Department has partnered with Rx Outreach to offer this program. Colorado Cares Rx is not funded by state dollars. For more information and to get an application, visit www.coloradocaresrx.com.

 

Groundbreaking Study Finds Racial Disparity In The Imprisonment Of African Americans For Drug Crimes

A new report released recently by the Justice Policy Institute of Washington DC finds that 97 percent of the nation’s large-population counties imprisoned African Americans for a drug offense at a higher rate than whites. The report documents racial disparities in the use of prison for drug offenses in 193 of the 198 counties that reported to government entities.

“The Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of Drug Imprisonment and the Characteristics of Punitive Counties” is the first study to examine the relationships between these socio-demographic structures and the specific annual rate at which people are admitted to prison for drug offenses, and the first to localize the racially disparate impact of drug imprisonment at the county level.

This report found that counties with higher poverty rates, larger African-American populations and larger police or judicial budgets imprison people for drug offenses at higher rates than counties without these characteristics. These relationships were found to be independent of whether the county actually had a higher rate of crime.

Data from seven counties in Colorado were included in this research project: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, El Paso, Jefferson and Larimer. In each of these Colorado counties, the study found significant racial disparity in the incarceration of African Americans for a drug offense. Adams County had the highest racial disparity of the Colorado counties profiled and incarcerates African Americans for a drug offense at 24 times the rate of whites. 

The report also found that Denver had one of the highest incarceration rates for drug offense in the nation at 147.39 people per 100,000, a rate 3-5 times that of other metro counties.  

To view the full report and interactive state map, visit www.justicepolicy.org.

The Justice Policy Institute is a non-profit, public policy and research institute dedicated to ending society's reliance on incarceration and promoting effective and just solutions to social problems.  

 

Hickenlooper Launches “No Place for Hate” Program

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper launched the Anti-Defamation League’s new education program for Colorado schools, No Place for Hate, and its companion guide, the Positive Impact Tools for Respecting Differences, during a press conference last month on the front steps of the City and County Building. ADL’s No Place for Hate program empowers schools to promote respect for individual and group differences while challenging prejudice and bigotry. Through the year-long program, schools complete five different steps to earn their designation as a No Place for Hate community.

 

Denver 8 TV Announces Updated Online Programming Site

Denver 8 TV, the city’s Municipal Access Television channel, has launched an improved web site where users can find live programming of the channel and a rich archive of video programs recorded by Denver 8. The programs available include all meeting coverage of Denver City Council, numerous press announcements, community forum coverage and all the weekly and monthly programs produced by the channel.

 

Wells Fargo Supports Black Owned Businesses To The Tune of $1 Billion

Recognizing the vitality of African American small business owners throughout the nation, Wells Fargo & Company formally acknowledged it had reached its goal to lend $1 billion to African American business owners nationwide by 2010. Wells Fargo is celebrating the achievement this year with a number of events, including screenings of the film, Two Dollars and a Dream, about America’s first self-made millionairess Madame C.J. Walker. The film illustrates the history of successful entrepreneurship in the African American community.

According to U.S. Census data from 2002, there are more than one million African American-owned businesses in the U.S., a 45 percent increase over the 1997 census figure. Wells Fargo is committed to the growth of the African American business community and supports African American organizations and activities in the communities it serves. 

 

Define Democracy At 2008 Democratic Convention

The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and Denver Film Society have launched the Cinemocracy Film Festival to coincide with the 2008 Democratic National Convention. As an official event of the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee, Cinemocracy calls for open participation in the political process – a multitude of voices during an event that will undoubtedly shape the political future of the United States. The 2008 Cinemocracy Film Festival will consist of open source films addressing the topic of “How do you define democracy?”

For more information, visit www.denverfilm.org/cinemocracy.

 

Hair Braiders/Natural Hairstylists Exempt From Current Law Recommendation

The Department of Regulatory Agencies’ Office of Policy, Research and Regulatory Reform has released a sunrise review examining the need for state regulation of hair braiders/natural hair stylists. Sunrise reviews determine whether the public is being harmed by the unregulated practice of an occupation or profession and whether there are less burdensome alternatives. A sunrise application was filed requesting a separate license for hair braiders/natural hairstylists. Currently, an individual who braids hair or styles hair is required to be licensed as a cosmetologist or hairstylist in Colorado. The 2008 sunrise review of hair braiders/natural hairstylists found that the harm posed to the public by practitioners of this occupation is minimal. Consequently, the review recommended that these practitioners be exempted from the current licensing scheme if they complete the sanitation and disinfection seminar offered by the Office of Barber and Cosmetology Licensure.

 

Westside Activist Waldo Benavidez Dies

Long time community activist Waldo Benavidez passed away on Friday, Feb. 22. A native of Albuquerque, NM, Benavidez lived for more than 40 years in Denver’s Westside community. He began his career as a recruiter, strategist, and community leader with the Colorado Democratic Party and as the director of the Auraria Community Center, where he helped feed the needy and assisted the poor with basic emergency support services. Benavidez is survived by five children and his former wife, the Honorable Betty Benavidez, the first Hispanic woman elected to the Colorado House of Representatives. Services were held in March at St. Cajetan's Catholic Church in Denver.

 

Verifiable, Open And Transparent Elections Act Moves Ahead

The Senate State Affairs Committee approved the Vote Act of 2008, a bi-partisan bill aimed at ensuring accurate and secure elections in 2008. Sponsored by Sen. Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, and Sen. Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, Bill SB08-189 will help to restore voter confidence in Colorado’s election system following Secretary of State Mike Coffman’s decertification of voting machines. The bill calls for the use of paper ballots at polling places in addition to early or mail voting and federally-mandated electronic voting machines. Given the unprecedented voter turnout in Colorado’s caucuses and across the country, the 2008 general election will likely have a larger turnout than any previous election conducted in the state’s history.