My Page: Amy Brouillette

Outside the Democratic National Convention

Last night's clash between a few hundred protesters and riot police in downtown Denver was a striking show of police muscle and proof the city means business when dealing with unauthorized displays of dissent. It was clear something was afoot when, as dusk settled over the city, several groups of riot police materialized onto 15th street and began a destination-oriented trot, masks down, batons in hand, toward the government buildings on 15th Street and Court Place.
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Inside the DNC

Proof "new media" has come of age, scores of bloggers and citizen journalists at this year's Democratic Convention are operating from their very own air-conditioned command center in the sprawling, 8,000-square foot media complex in LoDo, a.k.a. "The Big Tent." A joint, non-profit project of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Daily Kos and ProgressNow, the Big Tent houses an all-green, state-of-the art new-media lounge, and a Digg stage with a host of speakers (live steaming here: http://www.ustream.tv/). [more]

Mysterious masked teens prompting a recent SWAT team sweep aside, Boulder High School is among the top 200 Best Public High Schools in the nation, according to this year’s Challenge Index published in Newsweek. Boulder High is second-best public high school in Colorado according to the annual report, landing at 168th of the nation's 1,200 schools evaluated; JeffCo’s Lakewood High School edged out Boulder, as it has the past two years, coming in at 146th. In all, 23 Colorado public high schools made this year's top 1200 list, three of which hail from the Boulder Valley School District (Boulder at 168; Fairview High School at 242; Monarch High School at 632). For Boulder High, this year's marks the first time it has broken the top-200 mark. (This year, Colorado also carries the distinct honor of coming in last: Bear Creek High School in Lakewood secured the number 1200 spot on the national list.) [more]

The People's Republic of Boulder Blog

This Wednesday was the first Wednesday of the Wednesday version of the Farmers' Market, which always, for me, marks the beginning of Boulder summer. Pickings were rather slim, as it goes this time of year – but the old standbys were in-house: the wild mushroom guy, the peanut butter man, Eldo water reps, and the flower stands. One vendor I hadn’t seen before, either because I repressed it or just missed it, was the “Hippie Dippies” stand, a few paces from the north entrance. In true Hippie Dippie fashion, there were no hippies, dippy or otherwise, manning, or womanning that stand, just some random things scattered along the counter, so I was unable to decipher what exactly are their products (though I had some funny guesses). [more]

The Boulderblog with Amy Brouillette

My day yesterday began badly, with too many things on my plate and not enough getting done, and by mid-afternoon I’d already resolved in my head to check out what I’d heard, weeks ago through the grapevine, about the newest, best kept secret in town: Lulu’s.
Lulu’s officially reincarnated itself this week in the old Teresa's spot on the Hill, after a short-lived stint on 30th street, and then after that, at the little publicized café, Album’s Bistro. A joint effort between veteran Boulderite, Album’s owner Andy Schneidkraut, and Lulu’s chef Sean Shelby, Lulu’s is a welcome mix of amazing “low county” southern-style food and equally impressive local music. [more]

The Boulderblog with Amy Brouillette

I tuned into CNN yesterday morning to an eerily familiar scene: a breaking story of a deadly school shooting; the red ticker crawling across the bottom screen keeping tabs on the escalating body count (one, then 21, then 33).

For Coloradoans, Monday’s shooting at Virginia Tech that left 33 dead conjures disturbing memories of Columbine, the state’s most gruesome and notorious crime in recent history that occurred eight years ago this week. Monday’s events also brought an unwelcome reminder of the time-killing, sensationalized repetitiveness that is the 24-hour news cycle. By evening, as celebrity anchors descended on Blacksburg, Va., it became painfully obvious that the Columbine-style media circus had indeed begun.
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The Boulderblog with Amy Brouillette

Two things of note happened on my way across campus Wednesday: first, I ran into two students in space suits passing out fliers for an upcoming lecture entitled, “Moon Hoax: Why We Did NOT Go to the Moon”; next, and somehow even more befuddling, was a small pro-Ward Churchill rally unfolding in the designated “free speech zone” in the fountain area outside the student center, resurrecting an issue I apparently imagined had gone away.

I’d just left a panel discussion—"The Press: From Watchdog to Lap Dog"— the first sesson I’d attended at this year’s Conference on World Affairs(CWA), Boulder’s annual week-long intellectual fest that draws politicians, policy makers, academics, writers and musicians from around the world to town to discuss, well, everything imaginable. The conference offers a bewildering smorgasborg of topics with always catchy titles (this year’s funniest: “Atheists Can Do Whatever the Hell They Want”), which over the years I've attempted to attend with earnest, but often failed and somewhat embarrassing, infrequency. [more]

PENNY LANE BLUES

It’s nearing dark on a warm Sunday evening, and a rather somber crowd has descended on Penny Lane. The coffee shop’s final weekend has drawn as diverse and fascinating a crew as ever (and that’s saying something): nose-pierced anarchists with spiked metal belts and bleached-white hair, old hippies with long gray ponytails and beards, street people with tattered packs and guitars, the enlightened ones with prayer bead necklaces and long white tunics.
I am knee-deep in freaks and loving it. [more]

What Democracy Looks Like

As the quake of Judith Miller’s recent jailing rattles through American newsrooms, reporters here—and everywhere—are left wondering just how free is our free press. Offering an international perspective on the issue, Hungarian media-law expert and visiting scholar at University of Colorado, Dr. Peter Molnar, spoke to a small group at the Denver Press Club Tuesday. [more]

BORDER POLITICS

U.S. Border Patrol agents this weekend arrested two Colorado College students found transporting three illegal immigrants in their vehicle near Tucson, Ariz. The students, volunteers for a humanitarian-aid group called No More Deaths, were intercepted by border agents while delivering the immigrants, who they claim were suffering from severe dehydration after wandering for days in the desert, to doctors at a nearby facility.
Daniel Strauss and Shanti Shellz, both 23, were arraigned in federal court this afternoon, charged with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, a felony that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. The students volunteer for NMD, one of a handful of human rights groups now set up in camps along Arizona-Mexico border—their aim: to provide medical assistance and humanitarian aid to migrant workers who make the increasingly dangerous desert crossing that claims thousands of lives each year. The area has recently become a battleground for citizen groups on both sides of a highly charged illegal immigration debate; most notably, are the anti-immigration Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a group who has taken to desert on armed patrol for Mexican nationals illegally navigating over the border. [more]