A new megadonor to charitable organizations has emerged in the U.S., raising important questions about how philanthropy is conducted. MacKenzie Scott, former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is donating money at record levels to charitable organizations. But beyond the amount of funding is the manner in which she is donating, quickly and with considerable […]
MIle High United Way
Posted inBusiness, Health, News
10-digit dialing becomes mandatory across Colorado to make way for national suicide hotline
Practice makes perfect. Six months after state officials recommended callers in Colorado’s 719 and 970 area codes start getting in the habit of dialing 10 digits — area code plus phone number — for all local calls, the change became official on Sunday. The switch is to make way for 988, a three-digit dialing code […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Economy, Education, News, Politics and Government
More than 36,000 Colorado kids from low-income families could miss out on the Child Tax Credit, advocates fear
More than 36,000 Colorado children could lose out on a historic expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit because their families don’t file income taxes with the IRS. The tax credit, which is temporarily expanded this year through funding from the federal coronavirus stimulus package, known as the American Rescue Plan, is being hailed as […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Informal caregivers are critical to Colorado’s early-childhood care and education system
It has been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and one thing has been increasingly clear, both at the national and state level: Our economic recovery largely hinges on access to quality early care and education. From a business perspective, it allows parents to return to work and businesses to reopen properly; from an […]
Posted inColoradans, Housing, News
New programs aim to house Colorado foster youth who end up homeless
Olivia Potter spent her high school years in foster care, then set off on her own at 18. She drifted from a short stint at her dad’s house in Montrose, where his one last chance to show her he was “a good human being” fell short, to a boyfriend’s college dorm room in Grand Junction. […]
Posted inBusiness, News
Eviction ban or not, Colorado tenants still worry about their rent while landlords struggle to survive
Vikki Miller began 2020 with a divorce. Then the coronavirus started spreading in Colorado. Now she faces homelessness. The Colorado Springs resident stopped working as an Uber driver in March and hasn’t returned because her immune system is compromised. She’s been unable to find a new gig that lets her work safely at home. In […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News
Unemployed and nearly homeless, jobless Coloradans whose benefits are on hold are crying for help
Jennifer Milton is one of the 7,800 Coloradans wondering what happened to her weekly unemployment check. She hasn’t received a penny since July 21. The thing is, she just can’t seem to get an answer. There’s no evidence that her account was flagged as fraudulent and caught in the ongoing investigation by state and federal […]
Posted inArts, Business, Coloradans, COVID, Culture
Colorado nonprofit coffers run dry during surge of demand sparked by coronavirus shutdown
Operators fielded seven times more calls than normal to a Colorado 2-1-1 hotline seeking food, rent, utility and child care assistance in the days after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis ordered nonessential businesses to close and residents to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. With 127,393 Coloradans filing initial unemployment claims over a three-week period […]