Events

POSTPONED: CPW goes to court for Sunshine Week

Colorado Press Women has postponed its March 16 Sunshine Week panel and tour of the state judicial building to do our part to help contain the new coronavirus. The decision also was informed by court officials letting us know that they are not sure the entire building will be open on Monday.

We hope to reschedule in the fall. We will keep you posted!

Thank you for your interest in these important issues.

On Monday morning, March 16, Colorado Press Women will get a tour of the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center led by a Colorado Supreme Court Justice, followed by a panel discussion on covering courts, featuring reporters from The Denver Post and Colorado Public Radio and the executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.

The Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center, the glass-domed building at 2 E. 14th Ave. (Broadway and 14th), is home to the Colorado Supreme Court, the Colorado Court of Appeals and other judicial and legal agencies. There is no charge for the event, although reservations are requested.

Colorado Supreme Court Justice Monica Márquez will lead a tour at 10 a.m. of the Carr center, which in addition to the courts has a law library, an extensive collection of art by Colorado artists and a museum exploring the legacy of Carr, Colorado’s 29th governor.

Before Gov. Bill Ritter appointed Márquez to the state’s highest court in 2010, she was a state deputy attorney general. She also has been a Colorado assistant solicitor general. Justice Márquez and several law clerks helped coach La Academia’s mock trial team from 2014 until 2018, when the alternative high school closed. She regularly mentors students and aspiring young lawyers, including a first-generation Latina college student with Law School Yes We Can.

The tour with Justice Márquez will start at 10 a.m. and last about an hour. Following the tour, we will gather in a conference room in the building for an hour-long panel discussion on covering the courts. Our panelists:

• David Migoya. David is an investigative reporter at The Denver Post, where he has worked since 1999. In addition to Denver, he’s worked at publications in Detroit, New York City and St. Louis, and has been a magazine editor, a photographer, and a weekly newspaper editor. He’s been a finalist for the Loeb Award for business reporting and a Pulitzer finalist with his colleagues at The Post for breaking news. His investigation into Colorado’s secretive judicial system – Shrouded Justice – was recognized last year as the state’s best work from any news outlet by the Colorado Press Association.
• Jeffrey A. Roberts. Jeff worked in journalism and public policy before coming to the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition as its executive director in 2013.  He was at The Denver Post from 1984-2007 as a reporter, assistant city editor and data journalism specialist. He also spent four years at the University of Denver’s Center for Colorado’s Economic Future. Early in his career, Roberts was a reporter at the News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University.  Roberts is also a board member of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
• Allison Sherry. Allison covers immigration and criminal justice for CPR News, focusing on problems in the system and trying to tell stories from the ground — the jailhouse, the police car, the courtroom — about what is happening in Colorado from places most people don’t go. She began her career as a health care reporter with the Denver Post and later covered education, poverty and politics. She was a part of the team that received the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News at the Denver Post for coverage of the Aurora theater shooting in 2012. She has been at CPR since 2017.

Across the country every year, journalists and public affairs organizations hold events about access to public information to mark Sunshine Week. This year it’s March 15-21.

We’ll have a chance to get lunch (at individual expense) from the Carr center’s own café as part of this event. We’ll be flexible on this — it depends on the size of our group and how long the tour takes. We may have time to get lunch before the panel discussion, or we may wait until after.

Space is limited. Please RSVP by Friday, March 13 at noon to donna@innoabrd.com so we can have a head count. Public parking is nearby in the Cultural Center Complex Garage at 12th Avenue and Broadway. Street parking also is available, but meters have one- to two-hour limits.

Ongoing CPW Events

Writers Group
The CPW Writers Group welcomes new members interested in stretching into creative writing, whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry or scripts. We meet on the second Saturday of the month. For details, contact Ann Lockhart.

Past Events: