Sam Tabachnik

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!

Youth detention center in Golden emptied amid what advocates called deteriorating safety conditions Many of the staff members at Lookout Mountain have also been temporarily relocated to support youth at their new centers.

Colorado’s Division of Youth Services last month removed all youth from its Lookout Mountain detention center amid what advocates say were deteriorating safety conditions.

www.denverpost.com/2025/09/08/l...

Discipline authorities seek removal of Colorado judge over frivolous hearing, lies, ticket-fixing attempt Jeffrey Walsh, special counsel for the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, is seeking both a public censure and Judge Ian MacLaren’s removal from the bench.

Discipline authorities seek removal of Colorado judge over frivolous hearing, lies, ticket-fixing attempt trib.al/RkP39rH

She worked 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. Telluride-owned hotel wouldn’t pay overtime, lawsuit alleges Despite being paid by two separate entities, housekeepers at Peaks Resort & Spa were effectively controlled by Telluride Ski & Golf, the lawsuit alleges.

Every 15 days, Ruth Rivas and her fellow housekeepers received two checks.

This arrangement allows Telluride Ski & Golf to avoid paying all the overtime that Rivas and her colleagues were owed under Colorado wage and hour laws, she alleged in the legal filing.

www.denverpost.com/2025/09/04/t...

From feeling betrayed to volunteering to leave, five former Denver city employees tell their layoff stories On the other side of Denver’s city budget savings are laid-off workers who now face their own budget crises. “I can’t afford to be without a job,” Mikhail Vafeades told The Denver Post.

The Denver Post's @elliottwenzler.bsky.social interviewed 5 former city employees laid off by Denver last month about what the loss of their jobs means for them and their families. “It felt horrible,” one said through tears. “I honestly thought I was a person who was going to retire from the city.”

Meat processor JBS pushed Greeley instructors to falsify safety trainings, whistleblower says Salima Jandali alleges JBS engages in “systematic workplace discrimination” and retaliated against her after she refused to engage in “illegal, dangerous and exploitative practice…

JBS USA, the meatpacking giant headquartered in Greeley, pressures instructors to falsify safety trainings so its employees can get to work on production lines with a history of causing injuries, a whistleblower alleges in a recent lawsuit.

www.denverpost.com/2025/08/28/j...

What is hydrogen sulfide? Toxic gas eyed in Colorado dairy deaths is infrequent but dangerous feature of agricultural work. Two agricultural safety experts told The Denver Post that in their decades of work, they had never seen six people die from hydrogen sulfide in the same exposure incident.

Experts say they have never seen this many deaths from a single hydrogen sulfide exposure incident

www.denverpost.com/2025/08/27/d...

The Denver Post takes top honors from Colorado Press Association — including inaugural A-Mark Prize The Denver Post won 31 awards for stories, columns, photographs, newsletters and page design — including first place for public service.

Some really great journalism in here - honored to work alongside so many super talented folks

www.denverpost.com/2025/08/18/c...

Colorado law prohibits evictions over unpaid utilities. Advocates say landlords do it anyway. Residents often don’t know their rights and lack legal representation, leaving them unable to adequately defend themselves in court against well-resourced landlords.

Colorado law prohibits landlords from evicting people who utilize voucher or subsidy programs solely over the nonpayment of utilities. Yet this phenomenon is happening frequently across the state, advocates and legal aid organizations say.

www.denverpost.com/2025/08/17/c...

Looking to use a federal housing voucher in Colorado? It’s a coin flip whether you’ll be able to redeem it NYU’s findings come as housing agencies in Colorado and around the country are issuing few new vouchers this year amid budget constraints and uncertain federal funding.

Even if you win the lottery and receive a federal rental voucher, it’s a coin flip as to whether you’ll be able to find a place to use it.

www.denverpost.com/2025/08/11/c...

Looking to use a federal housing voucher in Colorado? It’s a coin flip whether you’ll be able to redeem it NYU’s findings come as housing agencies in Colorado and around the country are issuing few new vouchers this year amid budget constraints and uncertain federal funding.

A study published this year by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy found just 57% of voucher recipients nationally have successfully used the rental assistance to lease a home — down from 65% in previous years // Story by @samtabachnik.bsky.social

Need a housing voucher to subsidize your rent in Colorado? You’re likely out of luck this year The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program has never been able to meet the needs of all the people in the state who are eligible to receive vouchers.

Public housing agencies across Colorado are not handing out new housing vouchers this year for low-income residents as they reckon with budgetary shortfalls // Story by @samtabachnik.bsky.social

Moffat County detective involved in violent encounters was previously accused of criminal behavior People who had run-ins with Kurtis Luster said he shouldn’t have a badge to begin with.

One sheriff’s detective was part of the team that ran over one man and also fatally shot another.

Police reports and interviews show the detective, at his previous job in Routt County, was accused of tapping his ex-wife’s phone and making threats.

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

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.

In this rural Colorado town, violent police encounters have been on the rise in recent years.

Craig, pop 9k, has seen its only 3 police shootings in recorded history since 2023 and has paid at least 400k to settle excessive force claims in recent years.

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

A lot of really eye-popping details in this @samtabachnik.bsky.social piece about Craig’ police department, including: The police paid out two settlements to the same guy, 20 years apart, and then shot & killed him in a 3rd incident, when the man pulled a gun and told officers to shoot him.

How Denver allows faulty or inoperable elevators to keep trapping people Elevators across Denver are trapping people inside or are otherwise inoperable, and conveyance regulators aren’t doing enough to ensure they’re working safely, a Denver Post investigati…

Denver Fire responded to 3,481 elevator rescue calls since the start of last year, and @denverpost.com reviewed the 30 addresses with the most elevator entrapments. In 33% of those cases, one or more of the elevators had expired certificates of operation // Story by @samtabachnik.bsky.social

How Denver allows faulty or inoperable elevators to keep trapping people Elevators across Denver are trapping people inside or are otherwise inoperable, and conveyance regulators aren’t doing enough to ensure they’re working safely, a Denver Post investigati…

Elevators across the city are trapping people inside or are otherwise inoperable, and Denver conveyance regulators aren’t doing enough to ensure they’re working properly and safely

www.denverpost.com/2025/07/06/d...

Man ‘violently’ arrested by ICE in Denver courthouse bathroom as young child watched, witness says Immigration officers also detained, arrested, handcuffed and cited the legal observer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

Masked ICE agents grabbed a man at Denver's federal immigration court and pushed him into a women’s bathroom, throwing his partner to the floor, a witness tells @samtabachnik.bsky.social. Agents detained the man “very roughly, very violently” as their child watched in tears, the witness says

A judge blocked a rural Colorado city from disbanding a church’s homeless encampment. Then the city fired her. The firing prompted serious concern from church leaders and homeless advocates, who wonder whether the city is stacking the deck against them.

A Montrose judge blocked the city from disbanding a homeless encampment.

Then the city fired her.

The move underscores Colorado’s deepening housing crisis and the lengths to which city officials will go to crack down on homelessness in their communities.

www.denverpost.com/2025/06/16/m...

What it was like to work at one of America’s most notorious funeral homes Investigators unspooled a decade-long scheme by Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors owner, Megan Hess, and her mother, Shirley Koch, to sell hundreds of bodies and body parts.

Previously unpublished court records detail life on the inside of the notorious Sunset Mesa funeral home in Montrose.

-Koch using YouTube to learn how to dismember bodies
-Extracting gold teeth to sell for Disneyland vacations
-Handing families random ashes

www.denverpost.com/2025/06/08/s...

A woman died after temperature soared inside her Denver Housing Authority apartment. Four years later, it happened again. The Denver medical examiner estimated Shirlyne Johnson’s apartment in Thomas Bean Towers was as hot as 127 degrees at the time of her death.

A woman died in a Denver public housing building in 2023 after her apartment soared to 127 degrees.

She wasn't the only one.

www.denverpost.com/2025/05/29/d...

At a crossroads: Downtown Denver is waiting for its rebound The Denver Post’s business team has spent the past three months putting together a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of Downtown Denver.

Hey, Denver.

Check out this project from my @denverpost colleagues.

I love working with smart, talented people!

At a crossroads: Downtown Denver is waiting for its rebound
www.denverpost.com/2025/05/29/d... via @denverpost.com

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…

Colorado’s city courts — designed as the lowest-level courts for the lowest-level crimes — have in recent years become far more punitive forums than Colorado's state courts, The Post previously found.

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

Gov. Jared Polis vetoes bill addressing sentencing disparities between Colorado’s state and municipal courts Gov. Jared Polis on Friday vetoed a bill that would have mandated Colorado’s municipal courts conform to state sentencing guidelines.

Gov. Jared Polis on Friday vetoed a bill that would have mandated Colorado’s municipal courts conform to state sentencing guidelines.

www.denverpost.com/2025/05/16/c...

A Colorado boy likely died from drinking too much olive brine. Grand County tried to make the suspicious case disappear. Isaiah Stark died from ingesting too much sodium, the coroner found, likely due to drinking olive brine.

Important reporting by @samtabachnik.bsky.social on efforts to cover up the highly unusual death of a Colorado police officer's 7-year-old son. “We have many unanswered questions, and those responsible for giving these answers are unwilling to do so,” the state's child protection ombudsman says

A Colorado boy likely died from drinking too much olive brine. Grand County tried to make the suspicious case disappear. Isaiah Stark died from ingesting too much sodium, the coroner found, likely due to drinking olive brine.

A really horrifying @samtabachnik.bsky.social story about the death of a 7-year-old adopted son of a Granby police officer and a pledge by some in power to ensure the case was tossed aside. www.denverpost.com/2025/05/15/i...

A Colorado boy likely died from drinking too much olive brine. Grand County tried to make the suspicious case disappear. Isaiah Stark died from ingesting too much sodium, the coroner found, likely due to drinking olive brine.

7-year-old Isaiah Stark died in 2020, likely from drinking too much olive brine.

This is the story of how Grand County tried to make the case disappear.

www.denverpost.com/2025/05/15/i...

These landlords accrued years of complaints and serious health violations. Denver handed them rental licenses anyway. A Denver Post investigation found the city has handed out licenses to building owners with years of documented violations, who then continue to neglect their tenants.

A @denverpost.com investigation found Denver handed out licenses to building owners with years of documented violations, who continue to neglect their tenants immediately after receiving the all-clear. “It feels like a betrayal,” a resident of a highly-cited complex tells @samtabachnik.bsky.social

These landlords accrued years of complaints and serious health violations. Denver handed them rental licenses anyway. A Denver Post investigation found the city has handed out licenses to building owners with years of documented violations, who then continue to neglect their tenants.

A Denver Post investigation found the city has handed out residential rental licenses to building owners with years of documented violations, who continue to neglect their tenants immediately after receiving the all-clear.

www.denverpost.com/2025/05/04/d...