FTS staff writer Kate Melvin talks about a recent find in an open-records request that demonstrates e-mail to public employees is far from private.
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Sitting in for Amy Oliver on 1310 KFKA, FTS managing editor Brad Jones discusses two recent stories based on government open records. E-mails sent and received by CU law professor Melissa Hart detail her political activities while on the clock at the university, and Gov. Bill Ritter's calendar is completely blacked out the day before the November election.
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Documents obtained under the Colorado Open Records Act show CU law professor Melissa Hart made a habit of using her position at the university to further her work in defeating Amendment 46, a 2008 ballot initiative seeking to end race and gender preferences in Colorado government. The documents are the basis for two FTS reports (found here and here).
Through a recent open records request, Face the State obtained dozens of e-mails sent and received by tenured CU law professor Melissa Hart. While this proved to be a story in and of itself, one e-mail from a prominent Denver attorney stood out, referencing Hart's opposition as "social vampires" who "will seek to rise from the grave."
This email was sent by James Lyons, a partner at the Denver law firm Rothgerber, Johnson & Lyons.
According to e-mails obtained by Face the State via an open-records request, tenured CU law professor and co-chair of the "No on 46" campaign Melissa Hart frequently used her CU e-mail account and campus resources to advocate against November's Amendment 46. More than 35 emails sent between August and December 2008 show Hart was using her CU e-mail address to organize campaign events, correspond with campaign attorneys, and advocate against the proposed amendment that sought to eliminate race and gender preferences in the state's affirmative action programs.
What does racial diversity have to do with academic achievement?
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Appearing on 850 KOA's Mike Rosen Show Tuesday, Melissa Hart, co-chair of the "No on 46" campaign, said that without race and gender preferences, schools would admit classes of "overprivileged" students who "all look the same."
If you’re a student who wears a shirt critical of Barack Obama, you’ll get suspended. This is something you definitely don’t want to happen, because then you’ll probably fall behind on very important homework assignments - such as the one where you’re supposed to write an essay tearing apart Sarah Palin.
The future of Colorado's equal opportunity programs was the source of a two-hour debate Thursday night at the University of Colorado’s law school in Boulder. Experts representing both sides of Amendment 46, a measure that would prohibit race and gender preferences in public education, hiring and contracting presented their case to an audience of about 70 people, mostly law students.
Initiative 82, a ballot measure designed to preserve race and gender preferences in public hiring, contracting, and education, failed to make November’s ballot after coming up short by nearly 8,000 signatures, the Secretary of State’s office announced Wednesday afternoon.
Today marked the deadline for initiative campaigns to submit signatures to the Secretary of State for the November general election. Six waited to the last day, but all insist they will have garnered enough valid signatures to make the ballot.
While the November election is still months away, public attention is already heating up around Amendment 46, known as the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, with two debates televised over the last two days.
