Molly Cotner

At nineteen, theft, of all things, landed Javier Quiñones behind bars. It was a minor offense but a pivotal moment in a life already etched by the contours of the street. This incident marked the start of his quest to forge a different path in a culture that nurtured and imprisoned him.

“Are you sure you want to come see it?” Mindy, the realtor, repeatedly asked. “You’ve seen the pictures, right? There is a literal hole in the back wall and that’s a long way to drive.”

One week, 813 miles later, with my mother as my co-conspirator and Mindy’s resounding warnings still fresh in my mind, I pulled into Thayer, Missouri — a small railroad town that teeters the edge of the Missouri/Arkansas border in the heart of the Ozarks. My mission was to follow my half thought out dream to buy the abandoned 1900s Colonial Hotel.

I’m a self-described technology “noob”—a term my amused 6-year-old explained means “newbie.” Until this summer, I lived blissfully in my world of ignorance, especially when it came to the realm of artificial intelligence. I happily ignored the rumblings and controversy surrounding programs like ChatGPT, convinced I would never find a use for them.

(CHICAGO) — On the corner of South State Street and East 110th in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood, blue skies and tree-lined sidewalks contrast the graying plywood of a boarded-up vacant home. Its Cape Cod-style bones, once beautiful with a stone façade and sun-filled picture windows, have been left to wither. Just one block up, another house sits with the same fate-a repeated pattern in Roseland. Homes once filled with working-class families, now sit as mocking relics of a bygone past and a nei

(TACOMA, Wash.) — The GEO Group, one of the world’s largest for-profit prison companies, is seeking to block a private prison ban in Washington state. A recent ruling in California could lend precedent in their favor.

In April 2021, GEO Group asked the U.S District Court in Tacoma for an injunction against the passing of a bill that prevents for-profit detention facilities from operating in Washington. The bill would also shut down any current operations by 2025.

As a private federal contracto

(DENVER) – Colorado has become the second state in the country to decriminalize and provide regulated access to naturally occurring psychedelics.

In a close vote, 52% of residents approved the new law, according to the Associated Press.

“I’m so grateful. I’m grateful for all of it,” Veronica Lightning Horse Perez told The Click. Lightning Horse Perez is a community advocate and proponent from Natural Health Colorado, the organization backing the ballot measure.

The Natural Medicine Health Act

(DENVER) — Kwon Atlas wears many hats. He’s an entrepreneur, activist, politico and journalist. But around Five Points, the neighborhood he calls home, Atlas is best known as the guy who tackles big problems with creative solutions.

In 2020, when he was just 26-years-old, Atlas founded Five Points Atlas, a hyperlocal newspaper that focuses on community and culture in Denver’s “Harlem of the West”. Now, he is running to represent District 9 on Denver City Council. If he wins, Atlas will be one o

(PUEBLO, Colo.) — Parents of elementary school students in Pueblo School District 60 are concerned that their kids’ health and safety is at risk because classrooms don’t have air conditioning during above-average heat waves.

Gloria Hinkle, whose daughter is in first grade at Haaff Elementary School, first noticed how hot the classrooms were during the school’s open house event. When she brought her concern to her daughter’s teacher, she was told, “We don’t have air conditioning.”

Camille Sanch