Sam Tabachnik

Family of Coloradan detained in Afghanistan: ‘He had all his rights and freedoms taken away’ The family’s first contact, Molly Long told The Denver Post in an interview Wednesday, was not until July 3.

Yesterday, I spoke with Molly Long, whose brother, Dennis Coyle, was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan a year ago.

He remains in detention w/no bed & no light in his room.

"He had all his rights and freedoms taken away," Molly said.

www.denverpost.com/2026/01/29/d...

How Colorado’s municipal courts became the state’s most punitive forum for minor crimes Sweeping sentencing reforms in 2021 didn’t impact Colorado’s municipal courts. As a result, the potential jail sentences for minor crimes in city court now often far outpace the state’s…

With recent changes to state law, you could face 36x more jail time in muni court than state court for the same conviction.

A police officer has the discretion to send you to muni court or state court. That decision could bring enormous consequences.

www.denverpost.com/2024/09/22/c...

Municipal courts can’t issue harsher punishment than state court for same offenses, Colorado Supreme Court rules The justices ruled that when a municipal ordinance and a state statute prohibit identical conduct, the municipal penalties for such conduct “may not exceed the corresponding state penalties f…

More on the Supreme Court decision here:

www.denverpost.com/2025/12/22/c...

How a Colorado Supreme Court ruling is reshaping the state’s municipal courts Now, weeks after the court’s decision, cities are reexamining their local ordinances, judges are altering their courtroom advisements of defendants, and defense attorneys and prosecutors are negoti…

The world of city courts was upended in late December, when the Colorado Supreme Court unanimously ruled that municipalities cannot impose harsher punishments on lawbreakers than state statute would allow for the same offense.

www.denverpost.com/2026/01/16/c...

Unenforced Labor: An investigation into unsafe working conditions in Colorado agriculture In this three-part special report, The Denver Post uncovers chronic abuses in Colorado’s agricultural supply chain – and the lack of action from state and federal regulators.

The state has rarely used its enforcement powers to block problematic employers who bring workers under the H-2A visa, we found in a three-part investigation in 2024.

www.denverpost.com/2024/09/01/f...

This Colorado farm has repeatedly violated federal labor laws. Why does the U.S. continue to grant it foreign workers? All told, Star Farms owner Angelo Palombo has been hit with $209,000 in penalties and back-wage repayments as part of federal investigations and settlement agreements in civil lawsuits.

Palombo and Star Farms have a long history of not paying their workers.

“Every year it’s the same,” one laborer told me in 2023. “This year they said it would change. But it’s a lie — we come and it’s the same thing all over again.”

www.denverpost.com/2023/09/19/s...

Colorado bars Brighton farm from H-2A foreign-worker program for failing to pay laborers Star Farms in Brighton must also pay more than $1.7 million in back wages and penalties, according to the state labor department.

Colorado has barred the long-troubled Star Farms in Brighton from bringing migrant workers under the H-2A program after an investigation found the employer, Angelo Palombo, did not pay his laborers for months and obstructed state investigators.

www.denverpost.com/2026/01/15/s...

The J-1 visa is supposed to be a cultural exchange program. Is it working as intended? More than 9,000 people came to Colorado last year on the J-1 visa, working as physicians, professors, researchers, ski workers, restaurant servers and au pairs.

J-1 students say the opportunity to come to the U.S. on a work visa represents a life-changing experience.

At other times, though, the program makes participants feel like exploitable low-wage workers with few protections.

www.denverpost.com/2026/01/06/j...

Violence, 16-hour days and no support: Why staff say they’re fleeing Colorado’s juvenile detention centers The Division of Youth Services, which oversees the state’s 12 detention and commitment facilities, employs more than 1,000 employees. Nearly 500 additional jobs remain vacant.

Colorado’s youth detention centers are facing a staffing crisis, leading to serious safety concerns for employees and youth and low worker morale.

The Division of Youth Services employs more than 1k employees. Nearly 500 additional jobs remain vacant.

www.denverpost.com/2025/12/22/c...

How Colorado’s municipal courts became the state’s most punitive forum for minor crimes Sweeping sentencing reforms in 2021 didn’t impact Colorado’s municipal courts. As a result, the potential jail sentences for minor crimes in city court now often far outpace the state’s…

These sentencing disparities have been an issue for several years, as sweeping state-level reforms drastically reduced sentences for low-level crimes.

As a result, municipal courts became the state's most punitive forum for minor crimes.

www.denverpost.com/2024/09/22/c...

Municipal courts can’t issue harsher punishment than state court for same offenses, Colorado Supreme Court rules The justices ruled that when a municipal ordinance and a state statute prohibit identical conduct, the municipal penalties for such conduct “may not exceed the corresponding state penalties f…

NEW: The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday ruled that cities cannot punish lawbreakers beyond what state courts would allow for the same offense in a ruling that could set precedent for hundreds of municipal courts around the state // Story by @samtabachnik.bsky.social

How JBS used TikTok to lure Haitian refugees to work at its Colorado meat-processing plant Nesly Pierre, Louine Jean-Louis and Carlos Saint Aubin — all Haitian refugees — were living in states across the country when they learned about the JBS opportunity through TikTok.

3 Haitian refugees say their experience at JBS in Greeley has been marked by injuries, discrimination and inhospitable living conditions.

www.denverpost.com/2025/12/17/j...

A Denver building for elderly and disabled residents wanted to unionize. The private-equity landlord had other ideas. Residents involved in the tenants union say they want a voice to help them improve living conditions.

This story shows the lengths to which a private-equity landlord will go to quash its tenants’ union efforts, organizers allege, using aggressive tactics honed by employers in the days before the National Labor Relations Act.

www.denverpost.com/2025/12/11/c...

U.S. Department of Justice launches investigation into Colorado prisons, youth detention centers The Department of Justice, in a letter to Gov. Jared Polis, says it will determine whether the constitutional rights of prisoners and detainees are being violated.

Breaking: The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the conditions inside Colorado’s prisons and juvenile detention facilities

www.denverpost.com/2025/12/08/d...

Looted: Stolen relics, laundered art and a Colorado scholar’s role in the illicit antiquities trade In this three-part report, The Denver Post investigates the role of Emma Bunker, as “The Scholar,” in an illicit antiquities smuggling operation that left Cambodian temples plundered fo…

In 2022, I wrote a three-part series on Bunker and the illicit antiquities trade.

She played an integral role in helping her close friend Douglas Latchford sell looted art around the globe.

www.denverpost.com/2022/12/01/c...

Cambodia seeks records from family of late Denver Art Museum consultant Emma Bunker Bradley Gordon, an American attorney who serves as a legal adviser to the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, called the documents a “missing roadmap.”

The Cambodian government has formally requested records from the family of the late Emma C. Bunker, a former Denver Art Museum consultant who helped museums around the world acquire looted Southeast Asian antiquities.

www.denverpost.com/2025/12/04/e...

How Starbucks tried to quash union activity in Colorado The coffee giant shuttered a store in Colorado Springs in 2022 shortly after its workers voted to unionize. A federal agency later ordered Starbucks to reopen that store, along with 22 others.

The National Labor Relations Board has found Starbucks illegally fired workers in response to organizing, closed stores because of union votes and engaged in widespread unfair labor practices designed to quash workers’ efforts.

www.denverpost.com/2025/11/23/s...

Update: DOC officials are now allowing all inmates at YOS to purchase food from the canteen.

Previous policy only allowed those who hit certain levels based on good behavior.

Families say their sons have lost 20-30 lbs in recent weeks

www.denverpost.com/2025/11/21/c...

Young people held at Pueblo detention facility aren’t getting enough food, parents allege Ten mothers told The Denver Post they have watched their boys at the Youthful Offender System detention facility in Pueblo lose concerning amounts of weight over the past few months.

10 mothers told The Post that they have watched their boys lose concerning amounts of weight over the past few months, as they complain about the lack of sufficient food at the Pueblo detention facility.

www.denverpost.com/2025/11/15/c...

Young people held at Pueblo detention facility aren’t getting enough food, parents allege Ten mothers told The Denver Post they have watched their boys at the Youthful Offender System detention facility in Pueblo lose concerning amounts of weight over the past few months.

Ten mothers told @denverpost.com they've watched their sons in Colorado’s youth detention facility lose extreme weight over the past few months as they complain about the lack of sufficient food. “They don’t even treat prisoners of war like this,” one mother told @samtabachnik.bsky.social

Police in rural Colorado plowed into a suspect who had his hands up. The undersheriff who gave the command has since been promoted. Police shootings and excessive-force allegations have become increasingly common in recent years in Craig.

The settlement marks the 4th time since 2020 that Craig has paid $ to ppl injured by law enforcement. The city has seen just 3 police shootings in its recorded history, and they’ve all occurred since 2023 -- a per-capita incident rate 20x higher than Denver’s.

www.denverpost.com/2025/07/27/c...

Colorado city pays $300,000 to settle claims from man intentionally run down by law enforcement The lawsuit’s claims against five members of the Moffat County Sheriff’s Office remain ongoing.

The city of Craig has paid $300k to a man who suffered injuries after law enforcement intentionally plowed into him with an SUV.

Tanner Sholes sued the city and members of law enforcement last year, alleging they violated his constitutional rights.

www.denverpost.com/2025/11/07/c...

The U.S. was a leader in cultural heritage investigations. Now those agents are working immigration enforcement. Homeland Security Investigations, the department’s investigative arm, once had as many as eight agents in its New York office investigating cultural property cases.

NEW - The Trump admin has disbanded its federal cultural property investigations team and reassigned the agents to immigration enforcement, delivering a blow to one of the world’s leaders in heritage protection, according to multiple ppl familiar with the changes.

www.denverpost.com/2025/11/06/u...

Horning reneged on agreements that would have had his company help fund the replacement of the iconic gondola that runs from the town of Telluride to the ski resort. He ended a decades-long partnership for a free concert series at the last minute.

The Denver Post spoke to four women who allege Horning sexually harassed or assaulted them during the last 17 years. Another woman alleged in a lawsuit that he forced himself upon her and had sex with her against her will.

Is Telluride ready to ‘chuck Chuck?’ Why the opulent ski town turned on the resort’s longtime owner Critics in Telluride point to Chuck Horning’s unpredictable nature, his my-way-or-the-highway leadership style and his refusal to let executives help him run the business.

For the past few months, I've been digging into the tenuous relationship between Telluride and the enigmatic owner of the town's famed ski resort.

Everybody in town has a Chuck Horning story.

Here's why locals say it's time for him to go.

www.denverpost.com/2025/10/30/t...

Feds allege Chauncey Billups was ‘face card’ in high-stakes, Mafia-backed poker scam Chauncey Billups, investigators allege, was known as a “face card.” He and other former professional athletes were used to attract victims to the poker games.

Billups, investigators allege, was known as a “face card.” He and other former professional athletes were used to attract victims to the poker games. In exchange, they received portions of the criminal proceeds, authorities said.

www.denverpost.com/2025/10/23/c...

Stuck in Aurora ICE facility, more detainees are agreeing to leave the U.S. voluntarily The government’s goal, lawyers argue, is to create conditions inside ICE facilities that push immigrants to voluntarily leave or to accept a deportation order.

ICYMI: Our look at how the “deportation machine,” as one lawyer called it, is working as designed in Colorado: www.denverpost.com/2025/10/22/i...

Colorado immigrants are desperately seeking legal help. They often run into fake lawyers and other scams. Kathia Blanco unwittingly joined a growing number of Colorado immigrants who have been scammed by people impersonating lawyers.

Non-lawyers offering fraudulent legal advice has been going on for a long time.

But advocates and attorneys say we're seeing sophisticated scams targeting immigrants now more than ever as arrests, detentions reach record levels

Story w/@sethklamann.bsky.social

www.denverpost.com/2025/09/22/c...

Riots, threats, The Beatles and other stories from Colorado music lore There are hidden tales behind the lore about Colorado’s seediest, funniest and scariest concerts.

Lotta people know the Beatles story in Colorado. Not a lotta people have actually reported it out, as @denverpost.com's @samtabachnik.bsky.social did. Plus lots more weird Colorado music lore!