Well, I'm disappointed to report that #Boulder city council voted 7-1 against designation of the historic district proposal that would have highlighted a history of racial prejudice going back a century. The one thing I'm grateful for is that the councilmembers appeared moved by the history that was uncovered during the investigation into the origins of Central Park. The public comment also highlighted the deeply racist practices and effects of reknowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Onward to the next battle for justice and equity! #COpoliticshttps://boulderreportinglab.org/2024/04/11/boulder-city-council-votes-against-creating-a-historic-district-in-the-downtown-civic-area/
More from @coloradosun on the Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams ejecting @fishnette from the party’s state assembly because he objects to her reporting. #journalism#copolitics
A week from Saturday, if you're a #Boulder voter, please come meet your state assembly representative Junie Joseph.
Junie was a fantastic mentor to me as a candidate and she is one of the most effective legislators in #Colorado, sponsoring 19 bills last year to promote affordable housing, renters' and workers' rights, safety for marginalized groups, and more.
This year she's a cosponsor of a bill to regulate #deepfake#AI video and audio when it's used maliciously during political campaigns.
I'm a co-host of this event, so please drop by if you're in the area!
My activism in local politics continues apace as I am sitting in chambers to speak at the #Boulder Landmarks Board in favor of the board designation of a historic district downtown, but asking the board to recognize that the district's creation came at the cost of losing Boulder's oldest Black neighborhood, dating to the 1870s. #COPolitics
#Douglas County libraries were hit with a #ransomware attack 10 days ago. Local news is attributing the attack to the Russia-based #Play ransomware threat actors.
@AAKL@TheConversationUK I know this is a fraught topic, and out here the district and other local government entities have policies that require official accounts to allow all comments. But there is a local person, well known to folks in local #Boulder#COpolitics circles, who comes to every public meeting of a board or agency and spends their public comment time ranting and cursing at officials and staff, as well as sending deeply offensive, aggressive, and sometimes threatening emails to lots of people who work for the city. The staffers don't deserve having to deal with this, either.
Well I didn't win my election, but my interest in #SchoolBoard policy is not going away.
Tonight, immediately after the new board members are sworn in, I will be presenting a public comment to #BVSD about their use of #GoGuardian, a technology that presents itself as a monitoring tool to ensure that kids visit age- and developmentally-appropriate websites on their school-issued laptops.
The report highlights key problems about the software misidentifying benign websites with run-of-the-mill, unharmful content as potentially harmful or containing explicit content. Poetry by the Bronte sisters, the text of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, and even the text of Romeo and Juliet set off red flags. So did words in the Texas driver’s handbook, and health information websites. These false positive warnings are touted by GoGuardian not as a bug but as a desirable feature of the product.
My concern here is that routine use of GoGuardian sends two very damaging messages to students: It normalizes routine surveillance, and it tells students that they cannot be trusted to use their computers responsibly.
I will be giving public comment to the new board asking them to direct school administrators to investigate the district's contract with GoGuardian, and to seek out a less invasive, more accurate method of protecting children who use computers.
Last night, city council voted to make a change to a building code that would allow a larger number of not-blood-related people to live together under one roof.